The Most Dangerous Game
by metgear5
Summary: Going after a bounty bigger then they ever thought possible the Bebop crew faces an opponent that may be too much for even them to handle. Crossover with Predator.
1. Opening

Forward: Cowboy Bebop is the property of Sunrise entertainment. Predator is owned by Paramount Studios.

Chapter 1: Opening

Somewhere on Mars

Lenny hated to wait. He had been waiting in this sleazy hotel room for almost two hours and his contact still hadn't shown. It began to worry him. Lenny had been a small time smuggler, stolen merchandise, laundered cash, simple stuff. He had gotten good at his trade, so good that the ISSP had boarded his ships several times and had not been able to find a thing. His talents eventually caught the eye of some very rich clients. They refused to say who they were, just that they had things that needed to be transported without anyone knowing about them. The stuff they wanted him to smuggle made him a little nervous. Stolen goods and money were one thing, but guns and drugs were another. That kind of stuff would get you shot if you weren't careful, and there were plenty out there, including the cops, that would put a bullet in your head just to get their hands on a fraction of the stuff. The risks were big, but so was the pay. Twenty million woolongs a trip, more for one trip then he would have had made for a dozen trips in the old days.

[The old days.] Lenny thought with a bit of irony. The old days weren't exactly as old as they sounded. He had only been working for his mystery clients a few months when he had received a request from a different source. Thinking he could make a few extra woolongs Lenny had taken the job. When he had reported to the address given to him by his new client he was greeted by a gruesome sight. In the office, tied to a chair was his new client, his throat slit ear to ear. He wasn't bleeding and judging from the pool of blood on the floor he had been dead for some time. Every instinct Lenny had told him to run but he stood stock still, too afraid to move.

"You should consider yourself fortunate." A voice from the shadows said. "We are not in the habit of providing warnings." Turning toward the sound of the voice Lenny saw a tall man with white hair step out of the shadows. It had not been a large office but he had escaped Lenny's detection, he blended into the shadows so well he seemed to be a part of it. That was scary, but what really scared Lenny was the stranger's eyes. They were blank and emotionless, devoid of anything human.

"Who…who are you?" Lenny finally managed to stammer. The stranger's face did not change from its blank expression.

"I was sent here on behalf of the clients you work for." Lenny felt a chill go up his spine. The stranger's voice was as dead as his eyes. "They consider your services to them too valuable to be used on any others. It would be wise for you to remember that, otherwise you will end up like your friend." Lenny gulped and looked over at the dead man, who had a look of horror frozen on his face. He suddenly found the stranger standing in front of him! He had not even heard the man move! The man reached into his black coat and Lenny instinctively raised his hands to protect himself, expecting him to pull a gun. When no shot was fired Lenny cautiously lowered his hands and saw the man was holding out a piece of paper. "This will tell you all you need to know." Hands trembling Lenny took the paper and unfolded it. On the paper was a symbol, one he recognized. It was the insignia of the Red Dragons!! Lenny felt the blood drain from his face and his whole body started to shake. Satisfied with the reaction the stranger walked past Lenny and began to leave. Lenny thought he had recognized the man but did not want to admit it was true. Now he was sure who he was.

"Y…Y… You're V…V… Vicious? Aren't you?" The stranger kept walking, not even acknowledging that Lenny had spoken.

That had been two weeks ago, and since then Lenny had decided he wanted out. He had done some bad things, but he was working for people who killed for any reason they could think of. It was said once you were in you could never get out, but Lenny didn't care. The revelation he was working for a crime syndicate and his encounter with Vicious had made him too scared to care anymore. He had gotten in touch with one of the less corrupt cops at ISSP and had offered to give them information in exchange for protection. They had agreed to meet in a rundown section of town to discuss the terms of their deal. He was beginning to think something went wrong when he heard a knock on the door.

"About time." Lenny said in relief as he went to open the door. He didn't get more then two steps when the door came crashing in and five men in dark suits entered the room.

"Lenny, Lenny, Lenny." Their leader, a man with black hair and a beard, scolded. "We thought you were smarter then this. We pay you good, cover your tracks for you and we even went so far as to give you a warning to dissuade you from any bad business. All that and you still think you're too good for us and try to leave. We are very disappointed in you."

"I'm meeting a cop here." Lenny said, trying to sound brave. "He'll be here any minute." The group of thugs laughed.

"Sorry but your friend won't be joining us." The head thug said. "We convinced him to take a leave of absence. A very permanent leave of absence." The thugs laughed again. The cop in question was now at the bottom of a dumpster and probably wouldn't be found for weeks. "It's ok though, I'm sure this is something he probably would have want to have missed." All five of them pulled machine pistols out of their suits and aimed them at Lenny.

"People will hear!!" Lenny shrieked, screwing up the last of his courage. "The place will be crawling with cops before you can get away!!" The group of thugs laughed again and a sadistic grin spread across the leader's face.

"Not in this part of town, gunfire is so common people have learned to ignore it. You really saved us a lot of trouble in setting this up." He turned on a laser sight and centered it on Lenny's chest. "And don't think the manager will be any help. He's been bribed more then enough to forget we were ever here. I guess this is goodbye Lenny, too bad you had to be so stupid." The head thug fired one shot that struck Lenny in the chest but did not knock him down. Lenny looked down at his bleeding chest and back up to the firing squad in front of him. All the thugs opened up at once, hitting Lenny dozens of times. When they stopped their barrage Lenny stood upright for a second then fell over backwards. The head thug walked over to Lenny's body and calmly put one last bullet into Lenny's forehead. "God I love this job!" He exclaimed as they all reloaded their weapons. They walked out without looking back once.

"Hey boss." One of the thugs asked as the left the hotel into a back alley. "Why didn't Vicious take care of this punk? He was the one who gave him the warning."

"Because Vicious thought offing the little weasel was below him, and for once the elders agreed. That just means more fun for us." As they walked down the alley a large piece of one of the buildings fell in front of them. Looking up to see where the piece of brick came from they saw something else descending.

It was night out and there were very few people walking the street. One of them was a drunk that was wandering around just outside the alley that the hit team was currently in. In his drunken stupor he leaned against one of the buildings to keep himself upright. It was the only thing that kept him from turning down that alley.

From within the alley a high pitched gurgling scream caused the drunk to freeze. The scream ended with the person sounding like they were drowning. The next instant gunfire erupted, a lot of gunfire. Mixed in with the gunfire were more screams and what sounded like an explosion. The drunk then saw the leader of the hit team run out of the alley, a machine pistol in both hands. He fired bursts blindly into the alley until the guns clicked empty. Throwing the now useless guns to the ground the hit team leader began to franticly search around him, either for a weapon or a place to hide. Though his vision was impaired by the booze the drunk saw a look of absolute terror on the person's face. When the man saw nothing useful around him he turned and ran away as fast as he could.

"HELP ME!!!" The man screamed, sounding as terrified as he looked. "HELP ME!!!" As the drunk debated whether or not to answer him something came flying out of the alley and struck the man in the back. The man was lifted off his feet and was slammed into a wall. The man stood there against the wall screaming and coughing up blood, trying to push off of it. The drunk couldn't make sense of it but as his eyes focused he saw the man had been hit by a long piece of metal and been impaled on it. The same piece of metal now held him to the side of the building, like a speared fish. The drunk was about to go help when he literally felt something come running out of the alley. He could tell it was big but he could only make out the outline of whatever it was, the rest just looked like a shimmer of heat above pavement. The hit team leader, although pinned to the wall and half dead, managed to see what was coming out of the corner of his eye and began to scream louder as the thing approached. The drunk saw a flash of metal and then saw the man's head come off of his body, bouncing a few times before coming to rest, its mouth open in a silent scream. The thing then yanked whatever was impaling the man out and the body fell to the ground, flopping and twitching. The drunk slowly worked his way along the wall, not taking his eyes off the thing. He came to the opening of the alley and was about to run when the thing seemed to turn towards him. Two glowing yellow eyes flashed in the darkness and the drunk, overcome by fear, turned down the alley and began running. He got halfway when he ran into a sight just as horrific as the one he had just fled. The rest of the hit team, or more precisely what was left of them, were strewn about the alley. One looked like he had been gutted like a fish, his insides lying on the ground next to him. Another had a row of bullet holes stitched down his chest, shot accidentally by his own team. One looked like his chest had exploded from the inside out. Overcome by the sight the drunk sat down and began shaking. He was vaguely aware as the sound of sirens reached him.

"Hey buddy. What happened here?" One of the officers asked. The drunk continued to stare blankly ahead. The cop raised his voice and tried again "Hey! Anybody home?!" When the drunk still didn't react the cop waved his hand in front of the drunk's face. The drunk started and looked up at the cop, as if seeing him for the first time. "Can you tell us what happened here? Did you see who did this?"

"The eyes." The drunk answered.

"The what?"

"The eyes." The drunk said again and went back to his unresponsive state. The cop sighed and went to the officer in charge.

"The guy's talking junk lieutenant. He's too slammed to have seen anything." He surveyed the carnage around him. "Who the hell could have done something like this?"

"Don't know kid." The lieutenant answered. "But these guys are Red Dragons, and the syndicates can get pretty nasty at times."

"I know that, but I thought their executions weren't this messy."

"This wasn't an execution, an execution is usually nice and neat like you said. This was a slaughter, and it doesn't make sense."

"How doesn't it make sense lieutenant? Couple of their guys got whacked by somebody else's guys. Seems simple to me."

"Nothing is ever that simple kid. Look around. There are shell casings all over the place and bullet holes everywhere, but no bodies except for these poor bastards right here. There's no evidence that they even hit anything. You're telling me that somebody got the drop on these guys, who then started spraying the area with bullets, and then managed to kill all of them without losing one of their own? All this inside of a narrow alley? And then we have that headless guy on the outside of the alley." The lieutenant scowled. "Something about this stinks. There are too many unknowns and I don't like it." The other cop shrugged and walked off. "Something just isn't right, and it's probably going to get a lot worse." If the lieutenant had looked up he might have noticed something suspicious, or he might just think it was a trick his eyes were playing on him. However he didn't look up and went to join the first officer. At that very minute above them on the roofs of one of the buildings someone was watching them, listening in on the conversation. After watching the two cops leave he gazed at the city around him, taking in everything. It then turned and disappeared into the night.

The lieutenant did not know at the time how right he had been. Things were about to get a lot worse.


	2. First Meeting

Chapter 2: First Meeting

On board the Bebop.

It was as close to normal as things could get on the Bebop. Bounties had been scarce lately and the crew needed distractions to keep themselves from going crazy, as well as to help them forget about the dwindling food supply. Ed was surfing the web, so involved she was unaware of anything going on around her. Spike was using the spare time to work on the Swordfish, which was badly in need of a tune-up. Jet was using his police contacts to try and find a bounty worth going after. Faye had resigned herself to channel flipping out of sheer boredom. On almost every station was the same thing. Reports about the massacre of the Red Dragon enforcers on Mars yesterday.

"Isn't there anything else going on?" Faye said sarcastically. She finally settled on one station that had yet another shot of the crime scene, with the bodies removed and cops milling around, looking for clues.

"At this hour there is still no motive known and no suspects named." A voice over said. "Rumors still run rampant. Some say it was the work of a rival crime syndicate at war with the Red Dragons. Others say that it was the work of a fanatical cult. While none of these theories can be confirmed or denied there is no question of the brutality of this crime. This station has received exclusive footage of the crime scene, the mutilated bodies still in place. We caution that the following scenes may be too intense for some viewers." Now interested Faye turned up the volume. The station cut to a tape, shaky and a bit amateurish but the picture was still clear and showed everything it promised. Four Red Dragon enforcers, blood everywhere. The camera zoomed in on each of them, displaying their injuries. All of them were pretty gruesome. One had most of his upper body blown open, looking like a bomb had gone off in his chest. Another was cut open from belly to chest, most of his internal organs lying on the street. The camera skimmed over a third, gunshot wounds just weren't all that spectacular compared with the others. The fourth only had two holes cut into his back, but he was lying in a huge pool of blood. A cop and the coroner turned the body over and displayed two more holes in his chest, the coroner explained to the cop that the position of the wounds showed that the man had been impaled on two large blades. The camera then moved away from the body to outside the alley and displayed the body of the final dead enforcer. This one had the most bizarre cause of death, his head was missing. The camera swept around the area and showed the head was nowhere in sight.

"Since when did you become interested in slasher movies Faye?" Spike asked as he entered the room, causing her to jump a little.

"Since never." She answered, slightly annoyed "This is the only thing anyone is running." Spike took a closer look at the screen.

"The head of this individual has yet to be found, taken for unknown reasons. It appears that syndicate warfare has just taken a new and terrifying turn. A new breed of criminals appears to be emerging, one that takes pleasure in the killing and mutilation of other human beings."

"And has no brains whatsoever." Spike put in.

"The voice of experience?" Faye teased.

"If you're going to kill someone professionally you don't stick around and fool with the bodies. You just do the job and get out. This isn't syndicates fighting each other, it's probably just some nutcase trying to make a name for himself by taking out some of the big shots. Nothing but a small fry." He had not answered Faye's question directly but she knew he was speaking from experience. He almost never talked about his past but what they did know was that he was a former Red Dragon himself. It was probably the same reason he didn't seem to have much interest in what had happened, he had no sympathy for any of them.

"You might be right about him being a nutcase, but he's officially no longer a small fry." Spike and Faye looked up from the screen and saw Jet standing at the doorway leading to the bridge. "Just got word from Bob. A fifty million Woolong bounty has just been posted for capture of whoever wiped out the Red Dragon squad on Mars." He had Faye's interest but Spike looked bored as he lit a cigarette.

"Who put the bounty out, the cops or the Dragons?" Spike asked in a disinterested voice.

"Who cares whose paying!! Fifty million is fifty million!!" Faye yelled.

"Well Jet?" Spike asked, completely ignoring Faye.

"Don't know who's paying." Jet admitted. "But this is something too big to pass up. We're almost out of food as it is and if we don't get some cash soon our fuel will be the next thing to run out."

"If you say so." Spike answered with a shrug.

"Don't tell me you've suddenly lost interest in eating." Faye said.

"Of course not." Spike replied as he ground out his cigarette in an ashtray. "I just think that it's a waste of our time going after someone who's probably disappeared by now if he has any common sense. Besides the bounty hunters the Red Dragons are going to go after this guy, and go after him with all they've got. They're not really the type of people you want to make enemies out of. But like you said fifty million is fifty million." That decided Jet went back to the bridge and set course for Mars. Three hours later they arrived on Mars and found the place teeming with bounty hunters. Each went to a different city while Ed stayed on the ship to watch for any new information.

"It shouldn't be to hard to get a lead on this guy." Jet had told them before they left. "Even psychos like to brag about their accomplishments, and killing an entire syndicate hit team is something that no one can keep secret for long." Unfortunately they all ended up having the same trouble the other bounty hunters had. A lot of people had heard rumors of who might have reason to do it, but all of them were too old or too sacred to have done it. None of them would have been able to kill one enforcer, let alone five of them at once. As Spike left what felt like the hundredth bar he had been to looking for info and found, of course, nothing he decided to call it a day and started towards the landing area where he had left the Swordfish. Next to that landing area was an abandoned warehouse that had been the sight of little activity until recently.

Red Dragon Headquarters- Two hours earlier.

The clan elders had demanded to see Vicious immediately. He didn't need any of his spies to tell him what this was about, a team of their enforces had been killed after they had eliminated a smuggler that was about to talk to ISSP. The same smuggler he had been ordered to intimidate so he would not do something so foolish. But he went ahead and did it anyway, so he received what he deserved. Vicious briefly wondered if they were going to accuse him of the crime. Most of the team had been killed with a bladed weapon; something that Vicious was unsurpassed in using. Deciding that accusations meant nothing he stood before the elders and waited.

"Someone has interfered with the will of our clan." Wang Long said, getting right to the point.

"Our blood has been spilled and our code demands that the person who has done this will have his own blood spilled, as well as all those associated with him." Ping Long continued.

"Any who seeks to attack the Red Dragons with impunity must be punished." Sou Long finished.

"Then you know who has done this?" Vicious asked, ignoring the speech.

"Several weeks ago you were told to show a smuggler the error of trying to betray us. You failed. He was about to betray us to ISSP and has obviously contacted someone to avenge him in case of his death." Ping Long explained.

[Fools.] Vicious thought to himself. [That smuggler was almost too scared to go to the police, and too stupid to find anyone that would be able to do this to us. These corpses are thinking too much in the old ways.] Aloud he asked. "You have a name?"

"We have the names of several close associates the smuggler had before he came to work for us. You are to find them and draw any information you can out of them. Whether or not the information is useful is inconsequential, you will force them to tell everything they know and then make them examples for all others. To show what will happen if any oppose the will of our clan."

"You will also take ten of our best men with you." Sou Long said. "For there is a great chance you will meet up with whoever has killed the group that eliminated the traitor. While they have shown great arrogance they have also shown great skill. It would be wise for you not to underestimate them." Vicious had his own opinions about who had done this but he kept them to himself.

"As you wish." Vicious said in a tone that turned the phrase of respect into a mere formality. The group of assassins that were to accompany Vicious were a handpicked team of the best the Red Dragons had in the entire solar system. All were very good shots, and each had killed at least twenty men. Most importantly their loyalty to the syndicate was absolute. All of this meant little to Vicious. If they were destined to die it wouldn't matter how good they were. Unlike the last team all of them were armed with cut down versions of assault rifles that could be concealed under the trenchcoats they wore. All except for Vicious, who carried only his sword. They set up in an empty warehouse not far from where they had landed so they could make a quick getaway if necessary. Vicious had then sent his men all through the city looking for the people whose names the elders had given him. They would go to where the person lived and, at gunpoint, would force them to sit motionless while they waited for Vicious to arrive. If they made any great amount of movement they would be shot in the leg. The combination of the stress of waiting with a gun pointed to their head and seeing who their interrogator was made all of them very eager to talk, but none of them had anything useful to say. As per his orders Vicious killed them in the usual way, letting them relax slightly before striking, slitting their throats so quickly that they seemed unaware of it until they saw all the blood. After killing all of them and finding out nothing they had returned to the warehouse to plan their next move. The warehouse was darkened, the power had long since been cut off. The only light source was a series of skylights.

"We have accomplished what our leaders have sent us to do, and at the same time we have not." Vicious said, sensing the men's fear even though their faces were neutral. "We have not found who we were sent to find, something that would be considered a grave failure. If you wish to go back and report this you will all die." Some of them were now sweating and one gulped nervously. Vicious tried to keep the disgust out of his voice. "I have no intention of dying quite yet, so I will continue to look. Search or die, those are your only choices." Vicious knew that all of them would stay, their fear or loyalty made certain of that. [Weak willed and easily manipulated.] He thought to himself. Yet despite that something about this felt wrong, he just couldn't put his finger on it.

He didn't know what made him look up at that moment but he glanced up at one of the skylights and saw a red beam coming through it that was hitting the back of the head of the man farthest away from him. Vicious reached for the handle of his sword and following suit the men began to bring up their weapons, starting to turn to see what their boss was looking at. The man the beam was hitting was turned halfway around when a blue light shot out of the same source as the beam. The blue light struck the man in the temple and exploded out the other side, taking a large portion of his brain with it. Without waiting for orders the rest of the assassins opened fire on the skylight with their rifles on full auto.

Not far from them Spike had just opened the cockpit of the Swordfish when he heard the unmistakable sound of rifle fire. Looking towards the source of the noise he saw tracers shooting out of the roof of a warehouse not far from where he was. From the angle of the bullets Spike could tell that they were aimed shots, not just random pray and spray. What had him puzzled was the fact there was nothing on the roof to shoot at. What was going on over there had nothing to do with him and probably didn't have anything to do with why he was here, but this was too weird to ignore so he got out his gun, flicked the safety off and ran to investigate.

Inside the warehouse the assassins' ammo had run out and they were in the middle of reloading.

"You think we got him?" On of them asked.

"Had to of." Another replied. "Nothing could have survived something like that." Vicious did not share the optimism of his men. No body had fallen through the skylight and there was no blood dripping down.

"Go up there and make sure there's a body." He ordered one of them. He was about to comply when a something hit the floor under the skylight they had just shot up. They raised their weapons and found themselves staring at nothing. Well almost nothing, all they were able to see was something shimmering that looked vaguely human. Most thought they were seeing things so they did not fire. In that moment of hesitation some kind of net shot from the thing and hit the assassin that Vicious had told to check for a body. The net carried him to into a wall, where it attached itself and started to make a whirring sound. The man caught began to scream as the net tightened and cut into his skin. He screamed louder as bones began to break with a sickening crunching sound, until finally passing out due to blood loss and the shock of his injures. The rest of them turned back and raised their weapons only to discover the thing had disappeared completely. As they began to look franticly for it a large spear burst through the chest of one of them and then was quickly pulled back out. The man fell to the floor, dead before he had even hit it. The others began to fire in the direction the spear had come from when the chest of another one of them literally exploded, hit in the back by one of the strange energy blasts. Now them men began to panic and started to fire in all directions, hoping to keep whatever it was away from them and maybe escape in the confusion. All the while Vicious just watched and tried to keep out of the line of fire. Very little surprised him anymore, and while he was taken off guard by what was going on he refused to let himself regress like the others had. One minute they had been one of the most feared groups of people in the solar system and now they had been reduced to a pack of panicking animals.

Outside the warehouse Spike had been creeping along the wall when a second hail of gunfire erupted and instinctively hit the deck. It was a good thing to because a second later several bullet holes appeared in the section he had just occupied. [Ok, let's see what we have here. A supposedly abandoned warehouse with a lot of gunfire coming from it, and screams. Very loud screams.] Another burst of gunfire passed over Spike's head and he began to crawl forward. [_**Now**_ they're firing blindly, but at what? You could hardly miss in an enclosed space like this.] The gunfire began to die down was well as the screams but Spike continued to crawl, not wanting to risk standing up and hit by a lucky shot. Or unlucky, depending how you looked at it.

Inside there were only two people left alive, Vicious and one of the assassins that had somehow survived long enough to reload his gun a second time. He reached for a third clip but found he had none. He held his rifle like a club and began to shout into the darkness.

"All right motherfucker, where the hell are you?!?!?! What's the matter?!?! Afraid to fight like a man?!?! What are you some kind of wuss?!?!" Silence answered him. "SHOW YOUSELF!!!!!" Behind the man Vicious saw energy flash and heard it crackle, slowly revealing something. It was too dark to get any real details but it was humanoid in shape and stood over seven feet tall. A sight that, for the first time in years, made surprise register on Vicious' face. The last assassin saw the look on his boss' face and slowly turned around. When he saw what was behind him he let out a terrified scream. Vicious might not be able to see what the thing looked like but he being closer the thug could see things Vicious couldn't, and what he could see was that this thing wasn't human. It had brown and yellow skin, its face was covered by a mask that had a faceless expression but instilled fear all the same. Panic taking over the last thug swung his rifle at the creature as hard as he could. The creature didn't even flinch when the rifle struck its broad chest and shattered into several pieces. The thug dropped what was left of his gun and started to walk backward. The creature clamped down on the man's shoulder with such force bones began to pop and lifted him off the ground. With his other hand the creature grabbed a handful of the thug's hair and gave a mighty pull, which was accompanied by a sucking and cracking sound. Vicious watched, now amazed, as the creature yanked the thug's head and entire spinal column off the rest of his body with the same amount of effort a normal man would use tearing a piece of paper in half. The creature looked the head in the eye, which still had a flicker of life in it.

"Wuss." The creature said in the thug's voice. It then attached the head and spinal column to its belt before turning to face Vicious. "You will die." The thing told him in his own voice. Vicious said nothing and calmly drew his sword.

"All things must die." He told the creature. "Those who fear death are not worthy of living." The creature responded with a growl and raised its right arm. It clenched its fist and two blades popped out of a device attached to its wrist. The two combatants rushed forward and both swung their weapons at the same time. Metal clashed and two pieces of Vicious' sword fell to the floor, cut clean through by the creature's wristblades. The creature knocked what was left of the sword out of Vicious' hand and lifted him by his neck.

"God I love this job!" The creature exclaimed in another voice. He stabbed with his wristblades and Vicious twisted his head, managing to keep the blow from being fatal. The blades struck him at the bottom of his jaw and came out the other side of his face at such an angle that they missed the brain by just over an inch. The creature yanked the blades out and though a great deal of blood came with them Vicious was still struggling to escape. It was about to strike again when a door was flung open, flooding the area with light.

This was getting to weird for Spike. The gunfire had stopped and he heard someone shouting obscenities that no one answered. Then he hears the same person scream, followed by the sound of bones breaking. Then the same person says the word "wuss" even though it sounded like he had just been killed. Then to top everything off he heard Vicious talking to, himself? Spike knew Vicious well enough to know that he might be considered crazy by most but he didn't talk to himself. He made his way to a door and kicked it open, gun ready. He was unprepared for what he saw. Someone, or something, was holding Vicious above its head. He also saw the glint of bloody metal and Vicious' face bleeding heavily. Unfortunately when he kicked in the door both looked over at him.

"Spike." Vicious was able to gurgle. The big guy dropped Vicious and Spike saw a red beam come from him and settle on his chest. Without thinking he dove to the side and began to fire through the wall. A blue blast came from the other side of the wall and brushed Spike's shoulder. It felt like someone had put a red-hot piece of metal against his skin and held it there. Later experience would tell him just how lucky he had been that the blast hadn't hit him directly. At this point he was happy enough to hear one of his shots being followed by a roar of pain as the bullet struck home, even if the cry did not sound human. Standing up he looked at his shoulder to see how badly he was hurt and noticed for the first time his shirt was burning!!! Despite how much it stung, and how stupid he must have looked, he patted the burning portions out all the while hissing in pain. Inching his way back to the door Spike waved his hand in front of it. When it wasn't shot off he entered the room, sweeping his gun from side to side, covering the area. He couldn't see Vicious or his new friend, but the area was fairly dark and he could only make out the shape of someone running to the other side of the building. The form opened another door and Spike could tell it was Vicious from the silhouette. Guessing that the big guy got out by the same route Spike relaxed slightly and took a closer look at the scene. In the darkness he could only see forms lying on the ground, obviously dead. The smell of blood and burned flesh hung heavy in the air, and it made Spike glad he couldn't see that much. One thing was for certain, whoever this guy was he was very good at killing people. And if it hadn't been for Spike's interference Vicious would be dead now, and he knew he was going to hate himself for that for quite some time. He was about to turn and leave when he heard something move above him. He brought up his gun and aimed it at the skylight that had been shot up but he couldn't see anything. No, wait! Something was moving up there, maybe. Spike blinked his eyes and squinted. Yes he did see something!! He saw….. a heat shimmer!? Spike shook his head and looked again. He did see a heat shimmer, but it also had a slight tint of green in one place. His finger tightened on the trigger.

[If this doesn't prove anything nothing will.] Spike thought as he lined up the shot.

"FREEZE!!!!" Spike started and turned around and found himself facing a cop in full SWAT gear, the MP5 he was carrying aimed at his head. "Drop the weapon and put you hands over your head!! NOW!!!!"

"Late as usual." Spike grumbled as he dropped his gun. "You got the wrong guy." He told the cop. "Who you want is right up there." He looked back up at the skylight and did a double take when he saw nothing.

"Right." The cop replied. "Put you hands on your head, slowly." Spike did as he was ordered. "Somebody get a light in here!" The cop yelled to someone outside. Another cop came in and turned on a powerful flashlight. He got a good look at one of the more gruesome kills, dropped the flashlight and started puking his guts out. The fist cop managed to hold his lunch in and cuffed Spike behind his back. "You're under arrest under suspicion of murder." As the cop read him his rights Spike gave him an annoyed glance. He could easily get out of the cuffs, beat the stuffing out of the cop and his airsick partner, and then get away but that would only make him seem even guiltier.

"I'm telling you you've got the wrong guy!" Spike protested.

"Sure. You just happen to walk in here with all these bodies lying on the floor."

"Yeah that's about it." Spike said. Unamused the cop gave him a rough shove with his weapon. As Spike was being forced into a police car another watched from atop the warehouse. He zoomed in on the face of the one struggling in cuffs and froze the image, moving it into the upper left part of his readout. It then looked at its hand, one that was covered in its own blood from concealing the wound the one in the image had caused. He was impressed with this one, none had ever escaped after he had locked his plamcaster on them, but somehow this one had. In addition the ooman had wounded him. It was a flesh wound true, and it had only been hit because of blind luck but the fact that the ooman had been able get any shots near him while diving and while under fire proved that he was indeed worthy prey. He searched his voice recordings and found his name, said by the one with white hair.

"Spike." The voice said. The name was committed to memory. He watched the car go, the area was swarming with armed and armored oomans so it was too much of a risk to pursue it now. But somehow he knew the two of them would meet again, and he was looking forward to it.


	3. The Hunt Begins

Chapter 3: The Hunt Begins

"Boy Spike you really stepped in it this time. How does it feel to be the galaxy's newest mass murderer?"

"Faye, I've already had a bad enough day already without you trying making it worse." Spike was currently lying on a cot inside a jail cell, trying to keep himself occupied by counting the cracks in the ceiling. Faye was leaning against the wall opposite of Spike's cell, amused by the sight of Spike being behind bars. Jet was currently up front trying to bail him out. The cops had interrogated him for three hours and Spike kept telling them what he had seen but they refused to believe it and thought they got the right guy, just because he had been at the scene. [Not like they noticed I had a gun that only had five bullets fired and not a drop of blood on me.] Spike thought with some amusement. [I was there so I was the one that did it. What a bunch of geniuses.]

"I think those ten guys you killed are having a worse day then you." Faye said. Spike let out a sigh. He knew she was only kidding and that he shouldn't answer, but he was so bored that any type of conversation seemed good.

"I've already told you that I didn't kill those guys. And I've also told you and the cops who really did it."

"Sure Spike. Some giant with dreadlocks and a weird skin disease goes in and wipes out ten guys armed with machine guns, all by himself, and then just disappears into thin air?"

"Unless you think I made all that up and I was able to kill ten guys and only have this happen to me." He replied, pointing to his injured shoulder, now bandaged by the police doctor. He was still trying to figure out what had almost hit him, and the weird thing was that he thought he had seen that type of blast before.

"Lucky for you the cops don't. Anymore." A third voice said. Spike sat up and saw Jet and a guard at the cell door. The guard opened the door and Spike walked out. "They finally came to their senses and figured you were too clean to come out of a bloodbath like that."

"About time." Spike replied as they exited the station. "What took them so long?"

"They said most of the killings could have been done at long range but some of them had been up close and personal. What convinced them was one real piece of work. They say that that the guy had his backbone torn from his body. You can't do that from far away." Faye swallowed at the mention of the mutilation. Spike smirked and nudged Jet.

"I managed to hear some rumors about the others. Is it true what they said about the headless guy? That he ended up looking at his own body?"

"Yep." Jet answered, catching on. "They said that the head rolled at just the right angle so that he would have been able to see his own body fall. The weird thing was, they say that the way his arms were he tried to catch his own head as it fell. Would have been kinda funny if he managed to catch it."

"Will you two knock it off!!!" Faye yelled, beginning to look a little green. "Are you trying to make me sick?!?!"

"Just returning the favor." Spike said with a grin. Faye said nothing and shoved her hands into her jacket pockets.

"Speaking of favors." Jet said, seriousness returning to his voice. "You owe all of us a big one."

"What? The bail?" Spike asked, confused. Jet nodded. "Come on Jet. Even bail set for an accused murderer isn't that high."

"Maybe, but this case was an exception. These murders are starting to get people nervous, and even though the cops knew you weren't the one who did it they didn't want to release a potential witness that might be able to lead them to the real killer. So the bail was set higher, much higher."

"How much higher?" Spike asked, not liking where the conversation was going. Jet let out a loud sigh before answering.

"We are now completely out of cash. We can't buy food, fuel, or any other supplies."

"So that means …" Spike began

"It means that we're stuck here until we find a bounty big enough to get us back on track." Spike couldn't help but notice the tone of accusation.

"Look, this wasn't my fault." Spike defended. "I was investigating a lead about a bounty and things kind of got out of hand."

"You just can't seem to stay out of trouble can you?" Faye asked. Spike was about to respond when Jet intervened.

"Look, we're not going to get anywhere by fighting with each other. Spike, go get the Swordfish and ….."

"That's it!!" Spike exclaimed, interrupting Jet. "How could I have been so stupid?"

"Natural talent?" Faye asked sarcastically. Spike ignored the comment and explained.

"Ever since that guy shot me at the warehouse I've had this funny feeling that I knew what he had shot me with."

"The doctor said it was probably a miniature missile that just missed and singed you with its rockets." Jet said. Spike shook his head.

"A missile would have detonated when it hit the wall. What he used went through the wall like it wasn't there and almost went through me. It was a blue flash of light and it looked a lot like a blast from the plasma cannon on the Swordfish."

"Get serious Spike." Faye said. "A portable plasma cannon? That's impossible."

"Actually not." Jet stated. "I've heard that ISSP and several private organizations are working on a plasma cannon that one man can carry."

"Then it shouldn't be too hard to find someone who would have access to projects like that." Spike said. Suddenly the day seemed to be getting much better.

"It's not quite that simple." Jet put in. Spike knew it was too good to be true. "There are several problems with the theory that somebody's using one of those weapons." He began ticking off the points on his fingers. "The biggest one is that the most optimistic date for the completion of a prototype is at least three years away. Even if they did have a prototype now it would need a power pack that weighs eighty pounds and looks like a high tech backpack. Spike, you didn't see this guy carrying any large packs did you?" Spike shook his head. "Just as well, a power source that small with so much energy would be more likely to blow up then work correctly."

"So that means we're back to square one." Spike stated.

"And nowhere near the fifty million." Faye sighed.

"Well standing around complaining about it isn't going to get us anywhere. Lets get back to the Bebop and check for any leads that might have turned up." The flight back was quiet as each one of them was caught up in their own thoughts about what had been happening. When they got back Ed greeted them in her usual hyperactive way.

"Did you bring Edward something good?" She asked excitedly.

"No Ed." Jet answered, not wanting to deal with this right now.

"Did you get something good to eat?" Ed asked Faye as she entered.

"Ask the jailbird about food." Faye said coyly.

"Get off it will you Faye! It wasn't exactly my idea to get arrested!!" Spike said angrily as he followed her in. Ed let out a high pitched giggle and started running in circles around Spike, flapping her arms.

"Jailbird, jailbird, jailbird!" She sang. Jet and Faye started laughing. Spike stopped walking and gave Ed an annoyed glance.

"Ed, unless you have something important to say leave me alone." He growled. He had had a bad enough day already and didn't need any more aggravation. The threat was intended to scare her off or at least shut her up but instead she broke into a very large grin.

"Edward has something very important to say." She assured him. Spike let out a sigh, knowing she wouldn't leave him alone until she told him what.

"So what do you know that's so important?" He asked. [Knowing her she probably just wants to show off her latest round of laser graffiti on Earth, not that the planet could get any uglier.]

"Edward knows the name of the bounty head Spike person is chasing." She announced. To everyone's surprise what she said was important. With information like that they might be able to figure out this guy's next move.

"So who is he?" Spike asked impatiently. Instead of answering Ed turned and scampered off. The others followed her to the corner where she had set her computer and watched as she opened a holographic news broadcast that was paused. The picture showed the aftermath of the warehouse shootout, heavily armed cops formed a defensive perimeter and behind them other cops carried out a body covered by a white sheet that was stained red with blood. As Ed started the broadcast other bodies started to be brought out, some badly misshapen because of the damage that had been done.

"As you can see the police are taking no chances in this, the second massacre in as many days of known Red Dragon operatives." A voiceover narrated. "With this second attack the brutality of the crime has increased as well as the body count. Ten men, all armed to the teeth, mercilessly slaughtered by person or persons unknown. Rumors run rampant, rumors of unspeakable mutilation, of heads and spinal columns ripped from the victims. Police believe that this is the work of the same person or persons that killed several other Red Dragon operatives just yesterday. Whoever is committing these crimes appears to targeting associates of the Red Dragon organization, and going after them with a vengeance. Some say it's a rival syndicate, others say it is a lone homicidal maniac. Whatever might be right one thing there is no doubt of, he is a true Dragonslayer." Ed paused the video.

"Everyone calls him Dragonslayer now." She said cheerfully as she turned around. She saw three faces that seemed to droop, and Faye's eye dangerously starting to twitch. Most people would have realized that they should have stopped joking but Ed never lost her smile. "Edward has also found something better."

"What? That his real name is St. George?" Jet asked in a rare moment of sarcasm.

"Who?" Spike and Faye asked. Jet sighed and shook his head.

"Never mind." He turned his attention back to Ed. "What else have you found Ed?"

"Big bounty. Biggest Edward has ever seen." She restarted the video.

"In response to the escalation of violence that has been seen here today a large bounty is being offered, higher then the fifty million Woolongs previously posted." The narrator went on. "The current bounty is now set at five billion Woolongs." Faye pushed Ed out of the way but instead of protesting Ed just laughed and somersaulted away. All three leaned in to make sure they weren't hearing things. "In a move the likes of has never been seen before the five billion is being offered if anyone can bring this murderer in dead, provided they have concrete proof that they have indeed killed the Dragonslayer. If they manage to bring in the Dragonslayer alive the bounty is set at ten billion Woolongs. It appears the term of the ancient west 'wanted dead or alive' has again found a place in modern times. Police were pessimistic when asked if such a large bounty will bring a quick end to the bloodshed citing the already high body count and the fact no one has seen the Dragonslayer and lived to tell about it. We will have more on this story as it develops." The video ended and all three were silent.

"Did Edward do good?" Ed asked. Nobody answered her.

"Dragonslayer?" Spike finally spoke up. "Do you think that they could have come up with a stupider name?"

"You know the press." Jet answered. "The cornier the gimmick the better."

"Who cares what the guy's name is!" Faye broke in. "Were talking about ten billion Woolongs!!"

"If we bring him in alive." Spike pointed out.

"What do you mean 'if'?" Faye challenged.

"I mean there's a reason that they put dead or alive on this guy."

"Spike, give me a break. You can't put a bounty on a dead body, everybody knows that."

"Actually you can." Jet interrupted. "It's a condition saved for the worst of criminals. The last one was about twenty years ago, on a fellow called Trencher. Nobody ever found out his real name and it was rumored he was an ex assassin for the syndicates, a good one that was completely insane. Liked to shoot anyone just for the hell of it, especially cops. If that wasn't enough he even managed to bomb several police stations during their busiest hours. All in all he managed to kill fifty civilians and thirty officers before they decided to put the dead or alive label on him. He was on his killing spree for almost three weeks, no bounty hunter wanted to risk trying to capture him because they knew he wouldn't be taken alive, and going after him for no reward didn't sound appealing to anyone. About eight hours after he was labeled what was left of his body was brought in, so badly burned and shot up that they needed to identify him through DNA records. The bounty was paid and that was the end of it. This though," He pointed at the screen. "it's too soon to label this guy, even with what he's already done, without the cops taking their shot first."

"This has Red Dragons written all over it." Spike said. "It was their guys that got wasted and only they could get results this fast."

"This is all very interesting, but it still doesn't explain why we shouldn't try for the ten billion!" Faye exclaimed. Spike and Jet sighed.

"Do you want to or should I?" Spike asked Jet.

"Go ahead, I've already tried." Jet answered.

"What?" Faye asked, not understanding.

"The reason they have the dead or alive label on this guy," Spike explained. "is because they don't expect him to be brought in alive, and they don't expect many bounty hunters to survive either. The Red Dragons have already sent their best against this guy and all of them are now in the morgue." He left out the part about him accidentally saving Vicious. "The only reason they're offering more for him being brought in alive is that they want the pleasure of killing him themselves, and knowing them only after a long session of torture. If they don't," He shrugged. "at least they know he's dead and they can stop worrying about it."

"Either way the Dragons win, and the bounty hunters take all the risks." Jet finished.

"So we're just going to let something this big pass us by?! Listen to yourselves!! This is the largest bounty any of us could ever hope for, and you just want us to turn it down?!?"

"Now we never said that we wouldn't go after this now did we Faye?" Spike answered with a smile.

"What!?!" Jet blurted, surprised at Spike's remark. "Spike didn't we just point out why we _**shouldn't**_ go after this guy?!"

"Yes." Spike replied calmly. "And it was a very good reason, but there are a couple of reasons why we should take this one. I suppose the money would be the first reason."

"Even ten billion doesn't by a stiff much these days." Jet interrupted. "I don't intend to go on any suicide missions."

"Every bounty we go after is a potential suicide mission Jet, it all depends on how you view it. Severity against the amount of cash involved is what makes us decide what type of suicide we end up taking."

"So you think that the amount they're offering is enough to risk almost certain death?" Jet asked.

"No amount of money is worth dying for, but I do have my own reasons for trying to catch this guy. Number one would be this." He pointed to his burned shoulder. "I don't like people shooting at me, and I owe him some payback for almost taking off my shoulder. Second, he has the Red Dragons running scared. Nobody has ever been able to do that. That alone makes it worthwhile, if only to get a chance to thank him."

[That sounds like something Spike would do, risk his life to thank the enemy of his enemy.] Aloud he asked. "You're sure about this, that the risk is worth it?" Instead of answering Spike lit up a cigarette and took a long drag from it. "I guess I should have known better then to ask. Now you," He said turning to Faye. "I know I don't have to ask _you_ what you think we should do." Faye said nothing and gave Jet an 'I told you so' smile. Jet let out a defeated sigh. "All right we'll do it, but we'll do it the right way and not go off half cocked like all the other bounty hunters are bound to do. I'll check with my contacts here and Ed you ….." He looked to where Ed had been sitting and saw she was gone. Looking around he couldn't find her anywhere. "Where'd she go?" A loud whoop answered him as Ed dropped down from the ceiling, causing them all to jump.

"Edward Wong Hau Pepelu Tivrusky the fourth reporting for duty." She said with an exaggerated salute. Jet wondered for what seemed like the millionth time how could Ed move around like that and not be noticed. He decided to focus on the matter at hand.

"Ed, you look for whatever you can find on this character that might be on the net. Spike is the only one that got a good look at him so he'll give you a description." Jet saw Spike arch one of his eyebrows. "Got a problem with that?" Spike shook his head and held up his hands in mock surrender. "Good. Cause if we do this right we bring in Dragonslayer or whatever the hell his name is with as little trouble as possible."

As the crew of the Bebop made preparations for their hunt the one that had been named Dragonslayer was on his own hunt. Several hours had passed since he had been wounded by the one called Spike in the storage building. The wound had been treated and now he had started the hunt again. He did not try to seek out Spike because he knew Spike would eventually come after him. He knew the eyes of a fellow hunter when he saw them, even if one of them was a fake. He scanned the night skyline of the city he had chosen for his hunt, the sky filled with ooman vehicles. The last ooman hunt was over fifty of their years ago, and they had progressed quite a bit in that time. When last they had attempted to hunt on the ooman home world they found it devastated, all the great cities and even continents lay in ruin. Their attempts at faster then light travel had shattered the planet's only moon, and it now rained a constant flow of meteors that threatened their species with extinction. The planet was determined to be unsafe and was deemed off limits. All these years later one lone hunter had decided to go back to the star system the oomans called Sol and discovered things none on his own home world could have imagined. The oomans had perfected their own type of faster then light travel and had used it to colonize many of the planets and moons in the system, leaving their shattered and almost dead home. They had begun to develop energy weapons and personal craft, once dominated by wheeled vehicles, had evolved into the flying craft that now filled the skies above him. Those craft had forced him to keep to the shadows until nightfall, something that had never been considered to be a problem in the past. It hindered his efforts but at the same time brought new excitement to the hunt. All the advancements made by the oomans added new challenges to overcome, something a true hunter craved. Their adaptability and resourcefulness had made oomans one of the most dangerous prey known, and so far he had not been disappointed. The only mishap had been the fleshwound caused by Spike, but that was negligible. He knew that Spike would seek him out and when they fought again, he would have a fine ooman skull to display. Until that he would seek out other trophies.

He had been scouring the back streets of the city, an area that on any planet or at any time was a gathering place for violent oomans. The sound of yells caught his attention and he leapt onto the roof of the building closest to it and gauged the situation. Two packs of ooman youths were yelling and gesturing at each other in aggressive ways. His knowledge of the ooman language called English was good, he had developed it over many hunts and he was able to determine that the argument was a territorial dispute. He shook his head in disgust. How could any rational being consider territory like this worth fighting over? It made him wonder if it was a folly of youth or for oomans in general. Below him the yells had gotten louder and the gestures more violent, and anyone could tell that fighting would break out at any moment. As the hunter watched one of the smaller ones of the larger gang drew a weapon and shot one of the opposing gang. The members of both gangs then took out their weapons and blazed away at each other. The firefight continued until all of one side had been killed, but the victors had suffered as well. Only two remained alive, and in a display the hunter found truly abnormal the two began to celebrate! Almost all of their comrades had died but they did not seem to care. If any hunting party every showed the lack of respect for fallen brothers like these two were showing they would be killed on the spot. Deciding that they deserved such a fate, and the fact that they were the only survivors, the hunter activated his targeting lasers for his plamcaster. For his first target he chose the smaller of the two, the one that had started the fight and had somehow come out alive. Locking on target the ooman never saw the bright flash that struck his chest and exploded out his back, destroying almost every vital organ in his chest cavity. The remaining ooman looked up and searched the area but when he found nothing he turned and ran. Leaping down from the building the hunter gave chase and even though he was faster the ooman he was chasing knew the area better and was able to keep ahead of him, but not by much. Although his prey could not see him it could hear someone perusing and fired blindly behind him, his shots never coming close to hitting the hunter. His prey turned down a side street and a second later the hunter heard an ooman scream. Judging by the pitch it was a female. Turning down the sidestreet he saw his quarry had stopped and now held his weapon to the head of a female ooman younger then himself. The female was struggling to escape but his prey pressed his weapon harder into her temple.

"Just keep quiet little girl and you might get to walk away." The gang member told his hostage. "Ok, whoever's following me get this straight! There is NO way you are going to get me like you did my buddy!! I'm going to take my friend here and we're going to walk away slowly. You try to follow me and her pretty little head gets splattered all over the wall! You got that?!?!" The prey was looking around franticly trying to find whatever had been chasing him. The hunter was not worried, between his cloak and the darkness no ooman could have seen him. But the prey's hostage, she seemed to be staring right at him. Not paying attention to the female's terrified expression he readied his plamcaster. "ANSWER ME!!!" The prey demanded. When he got no answer he cocked his weapon. "I'll kill her I swear!!!" The prey was panicking now, so the hunter decided to answer the prey.

"NO!" The hunter said in the prey's own voice. The prey's expression went from panicked to horrified at the sound of his own voice. In that instant the hunter locked onto the prey and fired. The blast struck him in the forehead and exited out the back of his head. With the brain destroyed the prey simply went limp and fell forward onto his hostage, who pushed him off. He fell onto his back, his face frozen in a surprised expression. He had expected the hostage to run once the danger was over but she just stood in one place, looking at him even though she should not know he was there. Her heat image revealed no weapons and she had not yet alerted any others so he determined that she was not a threat. Even so as he approached the body of the prey he remained cloaked. Keeping an eye on the hostage he saw her follow his movements, somehow she was able to tell where he was. He kept a wary eye on her as he examined the prey. It had been skilled enough to survive as long as it had but it's actions with the female made him stop and consider whether it was worthy or not. Innocents died during hunts, it was unavoidable, but only a coward would hide behind children while trying to save their own life. "Not worthy." He told the prey in the voice of the one with white hair. He looked over to the female, expecting her to run at the sound of another voice coming from the same being. Her only reaction was that her eyes became wider. The rules of the hunt dictated that he should leave but this female intrigued him. She could somehow see where he was despite the cloak, and in spite of all she had just witnessed she had not run away or passed out as most oomans would. The species must have become braver over the years, or just stupider. In a move that the hunter found surprising she bowed in his direction.

"Generous sir. My name is Meifa and I thank you for what you have done. May I ask the name of the person who has saved me?" The hunter let out an angry growl. He had 'saved' her only because she had been in the wrong place at the wrong time and it had involved his prey. Deciding to break the rules of the hunt to deal with the insult he deactivated his cloak and let the female see just who her 'rescuer' was. His height was greater then all except the tallest oomans so he towered over the young female and expected her to scream and run once she got a good look at him. Her eyes widened and her heart rate shot up but she did not move. The look on her face was part terror and part wonder. "Y, You're the Dragonslayer!" Now the hunter was truly puzzled. The second part of what she had called him made sense, but the first part? He knew enough about ooman legends to know that a dragon was a large reptilian creature that was supposed to be able to fly and breath fire. This was a creature of myth and if this female thought they existed her mind must be damaged in some way. The hunter repressed a sigh, he was getting worked up over the actions of an insane ooman. He reactivated his cloak and began to climb one of the buildings, anxious to continue the hunt. He never looked back but he could feel the eyes of the insane female on him the whole way up. Once he reached the top he began jumping to other rooftops and disappeared into the night.

As Meifa watched her rescuer climb the building and disappear she tried to put everything into perspective. When the sun had set earlier that day something felt wrong, nothing she could be sure of but something did not feel right so she went out searching. The feeling became greater as she walked and she began to follow it, not realizing she was walking deeper and deeper into the worst parts of the city. She had been snapped back to reality when she heard the gunfire and had wanted to run but she had become so lost she didn't know which way to go. That's when things began to move quickly. Someone grabbed her and put a gun to her head, telling her to be quiet. She then felt the presence of a Chi, one that was somehow unnatural. She felt the presence coming closer but could see nothing. The man with the gun began shouting and when he threatened to kill her his own voice answered back no and then a flash of light killed him. Whatever had done it came closer but it was still invisible. She could tell where the presence was but she could not see it. When it spoke again in a different voice she thought for a brief instant that it might be some sort of spirit that did not want to be seen. Wanting to know the truth she thanked whoever it was, hoping it would talk to her. What she got instead was an angry growl and before she could apologize the invisible became visible and she saw a creature that was not of this world. She was scared, even terrified, but something fell into place just then. She remembered hearing people talking about killings done by someone called Dragonslayer that were so brutal they were described as inhuman. What stood before her was definitely not human, but when she called it Dragonslayer it said nothing and tapped something on it's wrist and again became invisible. It then climbed a building and disappeared. Now what would she do? Going after it was out of the question. If she told the police they wouldn't believe her, she almost didn't believe it herself. She started to run, looking for a phone. There was only one person that would listen to her now, she just hoped he was close enough to help.


	4. The Hunter Revealed

Chapter 4: The Hunter Revealed

"Well I have bad news and worse news." Jet said as he entered the room and plopped himself on the couch. "The bad news is that none of my contacts have any idea who Dragonslayer might really be or how we might be able to find out."

"And the worse news?" Faye asked.

"The worse news is that they had been asked the same questions by at least a dozen other bounty hunters before I called."

"That means that we're in for some real competition." Spike said coolly. "It should be interesting."

"Interesting isn't the word I would use Spike." Faye responded flatly. "They have a head start on us, a big one." Spike responded with a shrug.

"If they do have a head start on us it means that they found something Ed wasn't able to." At the mention of Ed's name they all looked over where she sat at her computer, completely engrossed in her search.

"Dragonslayer, great knight of the stars, come out. Show Edward who you are." She chanted as she waved her arms. The three turned back towards each other.

"Lets go over what we know so far." Jet suggested.

"That'll kill a couple of minutes." Faye remarked rudely.

"If you have any other bright ideas lets hear em." Jet answered sternly. Faye said nothing and glanced away. When it was clear she wouldn't say anything Jet continued. "All right, this is what we've got. Someone is attacking members of the Red Dragon syndicate, why we don't know. What we do know is that he has the skill to take out over half a dozen heavily armed men and apparently not suffer a scratch. Spike said he has some sort of blades on his wrist and it looks like he has a portable plasma cannon." Faye snorted at the last part but Jet ignored her. "It also looks like he enjoys mutilating the bodies of his victims, again for his own reasons." He let out a sigh. "And we also know that none of this information is going to help us find him." He admitted. The three sat in silence when a loud beep came from Ed's computer.

"Message!" She cried happily and opened a video link to the caller. "It's friend of Jet person." She announced when she saw Meifa on the other end.

"Ed, where's Jet!? I need to talk to him right away!" She sounded near hysterics. Jet went over to the computer and Ed moved aside.

"I'm here Meifa. What's wrong?" He had never seen her act like this before.

"I saw him, ….. the alleys, he spoke with different voices!" Across the room Spike and Faye had been eavesdropping in on the conversation and Spike raised an eyebrow at the mention of different voices.

"Calm down Meifa, just tell me what happened. Go as slowly as you need to." Jet coached. Meifa took deep breath.

"I saw Dragonslayer!!" She blurted out. This earned the attention of everyone in the room. She saw the look of doubt on Jet's face.

"Meifa, this whole thing has Mars in a panic. I understand if you thought you saw something but …."

"I saw him Jet!!" Meifa interrupted. "He was tall, he had on some sort of faceless mask, his skin was, was yellow." She shivered at the last part. Jet felt his throat go dry, that was the way Spike described the guy at the warehouse. "You've got to believe me!" Meifa exclaimed.

"I do believe you." He assured her. "We've been on planet looking for this guy and you just described the same person Spike saw at the warehouse massacre." He paused to gather his thoughts. "Meifa I want you to listen very carefully to me. Go to nearest police station and wait outside of it. Don't go in and don't tell anyone what you saw. It's a public place and even at night a lot of people will be there so he won't try anything if he wants to stay hidden. I'll be there as soon as I can."

"But Jet…." She started to protest.

"This is for your own safety Meifa. Go there and keep a sharp eye open. I'll be there soon as I can." He stood and began to head for the hangar.

"Jet wait!!!" Meifa yelled after him.

"You can tell me everything when I get there." He said over his shoulder. "In the meantime GO!" He made sure to that she hung up before going to the hangar. Spike and Faye followed.

"You want us to go with you Jet?" Spike asked. "If this guy is after her you'll need all the help you can get." Jet shook his head.

"If he is after her he's sure to recognize you, and he's probably still pretty pissed at the fact that you shot him. That would put Meifa in even more danger."

"Makes sense." Spike admitted.

"And what about me?" Faye asked. "He's never seen me before." She pointed out.

"That's true." Jet admitted as he opened the cockpit of the Hammerhead. "You would make a great decoy."

"DECOY!?!" Faye yelled.

"Right. If this guy does show up both of us run in different directions and hope he goes after you." Jet explained. Faye's face began to turn bright red.

"I think it's a great idea." Spike said, a smirk tugging the corner of his mouth.

"Who asked you, lunkhead!?!" Faye shot back then turned back towards the Hammerhead. "Now you listen up …..!!!!" Her words were lost as the whine that came from the Hammerhead's engines slowly built up to a roar and the vehicle shot out of the hangar into the Mars night, leaving Faye standing there fuming. She considered yelling after Jet but knew it was hopeless so she turned and stalked off.

"Another chance to fulfill your true purpose in life and you blow it." Spike remarked without turning around. He then took a step to the side as a toolbox soared through the area he had just occupied. Surprised that Faye had been able to throw a large toolbox so far Spike turned around and had to duck to avoid getting hit in the head by a wrench. The hangar door hissed shut and Spike heard stomping footsteps growing fainter. He sighed and shook his head, it looked like it was going to be one of those days.

Waiting in front of the police station Meifa continued to look around nervously. Her encounter with Dragonslayer made her feel like she wasn't safe, even with all the police around. A couple of officers had asked her if they could help but she told them she was just waiting for someone. It was true enough, but she still felt like she was being followed. Dragonslayer had killed many people, but for some reason it had spared her. His strange Chi still bothered her. If it wasn't normal Earth Chi then what could ….?

"Meifa?" Meifa almost jumped out of her skin at the sound of the voice and was about to start running when she realized it was Jet's. "I'm sorry I scared you but finding the right station wasn't easy." Meifa started to speak but Jet put a finger to his lips, telling her to be quiet. "Not here. Too many ears are listening." They began walking, going through the almost empty market place. Only the most desperate owners kept their shops open but there were enough people and the noise level was high enough to keep most people to hear what they were saying. She told Jet what had happened and he compared the story to his own information.

"It sounds like the same guy." He said when Meifa had finished. "The bright blue light, the way he looked, everything is the same as Spike described. Except for the invisibility part. Are you sure it wasn't just the lack of light that made him seem invisible until he got close to you?"

"I know what I saw Jet." Meifa defended. "There was some kind of electrical sparking then he just appeared out of nowhere, only a few feet away from me." Jet frowned but gave it some thought.

"I guess the question is where would a person get equipment that high tech?" Where indeed. A portable plasma cannon was scientific reality, but an invisibility device? That kind of thing belonged in cheesy science fiction movies.

"He's not a person Jet." Meifa stated, breaking into his thoughts. She sounded very sure of herself and Jet didn't blame her. With the kind of things Dragonslayer had done almost nobody would consider him a person, more like a monster.

"You make it sound like he's some kind of evil spirit." Jet joked, trying to lighten to the mood. To his surprise Meifa remained completely serious and shook her head.

"I thought that at first but I could hear him breathing, and I couldn't see anything malevolent in him."

"Nothing malevolent?!?!" Jet exclaimed in disbelief. "Meifa, he's killed seventeen people so far!" He caught himself and looked around to make sure no one was staring. "And you were almost number eighteen!" He said in a quieter voice.

"No Jet. He just stood there looking at me and then left without doing anything. I don't know why but for some reason I knew he wouldn't hurt me." Jet frowned again. "You don't believe me do you?" Jet shook his head and sighed.

"I don't know, I just don't know." He answered truthfully. He had never put much stock in the supernatural but when he had seen Meifa use Feng-Shui things had happened that couldn't be explained by luck or coincidence. He started to ask Meifa another question when she stopped short and looked up. "What's wrong?"

"He's up there." Meifa said softly and pointed to the roof a building. Jet quickly but cautiously looked to where Meifa was pointing and could see nothing. Acting nonchalantly he took out a mechanical pair of sunglasses and put them on. Using the magnification capability he zoomed in on the area and still could see nothing. He took the glasses off and turned back to Meifa.

"There's nothing up there." He told her. In a quieter voice he said. "Go home and lock the door and don't open it for anyone. I'm going to try and get him to follow me."

"You can see him?" She asked quietly. In reality Jet couldn't but he did have that nagging feeling he always got when he thought he was being watched. That feeling had helped him out of ambushes and numerous tails back in his ISSP days. He had that feeling now, and knew that he had to put as much distance between Meifa and whatever was giving him that feeling.

"No I can't, but someone is watching us. I'm going lead him as far away from here as I can."

"But Jet …." Meifa started to protest.

"Don't argue!" He said in a stern voice. "If you stay with me you'll be putting yourself in even more danger. Go back to the police station and tell them you got lost and you think someone is following you. They'll give you a ride home and once you get there wait for a call from me."

"How will you get him to follow you?" Meifa asked, accepting the fact that Jet was determined to go through with this.

"By using the universal language." Jet said calmly. He then flipped the bird in the direction of the building Meifa said their invisible friend was on. "That should get his attention." He then noticed the worried look on Meifa's face. "Don't worry about me. I know how to lose people who are trailing me. Just get back to the station." He began to walk off. Meifa watched him until he got out of sight before starting back towards the station.

It was a huge gamble and Jet knew it. Abandoning Meifa like that would leave her vulnerable to whatever she had seen earlier. His two biggest worries were that whoever it was wouldn't take the bait and that there might be more then one of them. The latter of which he was able to dismiss fairly easily. Dragonslayer seemed to always work alone, and Meifa was sure that it was Dragonslayer she had seen in the alley. As for the former, Jet could still feel someone watching him and that meant he was being followed. That meant the gamble had paid off, now all that was left to do was lose him and that shouldn't be to hard.

The hunter had continued his hunt with little success. After his encounter with the insane female there had been no opportunities to collect anymore trophies. Deciding to move to another section of the city he had been searching the streets for any potential prey when he heard ooman yelling from farther down the same street. Moving to a building that overlooked the area where the yelling had taken place and to his surprise saw the insane female. This time she was accompanied by an older male, the one who had been yelling. The thermal readout for the male was strange, his left arm was twenty degrees cooler then the rest of his body. The only logical explanation was that the arm was artificial, yet it moved with the same amount of ease and motion as the arm he had been born with. Another ooman advancement that no one on home would have thought them capable of. An artificially enhanced ooman would make interesting prey, and in addition to the skull he would have the arm for a trophy as well. He looked back towards the insane female and found she was looking at him and pointing him out to the male. The male looked up in his direction but made no aggressive movements. He did take out a pair of black eye lenses and put them on. The hunter tensed up, with all the advancements oomans had accomplished it made sense that they had developed better types of detection devices. Fortunately for the hunter the device the one armed ooman was using was unable to detect him for the ooman took the lenses off and seemed to scold the female. A fitting thing for one who is insane. After talking with the female the male turned and made a strange gesture towards him. Extending his arm the male made a fist with only his third finger raised. Although it meant nothing to the hunter himself he knew it was an ooman gesture of disrespect. It was odd that the male seemed to direct the gesture at him when he had just appeared to not believe the insane female. The male started walking away from the insane female and a moment later the female began to walk in the opposite direction. He did not know why they had gone in opposite directions and he did not try to figure out why, oomans always acted in strange and irrational ways. Forgetting about the insane female the hunter began to follow the one armed male.

On board the Bebop there was nothing that could be done until Jet returned so they could come up with some sort of plan. Faye, still fuming from the incident in the hangar, was more then eager to try to get the ten billion reward by herself but since they had absolutely no information to go on going off by herself would be pointless so she watched Ed search, hoping to get some info.

"Haven't you found anything yet?" Faye asked impatiently. Ed didn't respond as she continued to hum and work her way through the net.

"That's the third time you've asked her that in the past ten minutes Faye." Said Spike, who was lying on the couch. "When she finds something she'll let us know." He might have hated kids but there was no denying Ed's skills, even if they came with a personality that was set to hyperactive twenty-four hours a day seven days a week, something that threatened to drive everyone nuts.

"Instead of just lying there you could be helping." Faye replied.

"How?" Spike asked calmly. "The closest thing we have to a lead is whatever Meifa saw and Jet's handling that. The only thing we can do now is wait for something to happen." Faye snorted at the statement. "If something is going to happen it will, the best we can do is hope it works in our favor."

"Well thank you Mr. Philosophy." Faye remarked sarcastically. Spike ignored the remark and tried to get back to sleep when Ed let out an excited yell.

"Ed has found all there is to be known about Dragonslayer." She announced proudly.

"Well let's see it!" Faye demanded. Edward pointed at Tomato's screen, which contained numerous articles about Dragonslayer, all of which had been dated within the past two days. "That's it!?!?! You were supposed to be looking for anything new about this guy!!"

"It's all new." Ed exclaimed cheerfully and clicked on one file. "This one written only ten minutes ago." Faye felt her blood pressure starting to rise but Spike took the news in stride.

"I think she meant that you were supposed to find out something about who he might really be Ed." Spike said without sitting up. "Or something about his background." He finished calmly. Faye was about to make a remark when Ed cut her off.

"No background and no real name." Ed said with certainty. "According to all information on the net Dragonslayer does not exist."

"Ed this is no time for jokes!!" Faye yelled. "Someone is committing murders and we need to know who!!"

"Edward is not joking." Ed replied. "No crimes like this before and no one in police files looks like who Spike person described."

"Well that was no illusion that almost took off my shoulder." Spike replied. "Somebody has got to know who this guy is."

"I may be of some assistance." Offered a voice that came from Tomato.

"MPU!" Ed cried happily. "You know who Dragonslayer is?"

"I might." MPU answered. "The description you used in your search is something I have seen before."

"Ed is it possible for a computer to be senile?" Faye asked, becoming annoyed. "MPU is over fifty years old. How could he know who we're looking for?"

"It is very simple." MPU answered, ignoring Faye's sarcasm. "I was originally part of a defense satellite and had many files stored that were to be kept safe at all costs. In my years of orbiting I read all of them and one of them deals with what Ed was searching for." Now interested Spike got up and walked over.

"So let's see what you have." Spike stated.

"Unfortunately there is a problem." MPU answered, sounding apologetic. "When Ed downloaded me some of my files were corrupted. I no longer have the access codes to open the files you seek."

"Ed will find them!!" Ed exclaimed readying her fingers above the keyboard. MPU brought up a password screen that that displayed 'Level five security: please enter passwords.' and three lines for different passwords, all composed of five characters.

"The passwords must be correctly entered on the first try or the files will be erased." MPU warned.

"No matter how complex, no matter what the size, nothing can keep Edward from the prize." Ed rhymed as she began typing. The lines for the passwords filled with Ed's trademark smiley faces and began to shuffle numbers and letters.

"What do you think level five security is?" Faye asked Spike. Spike just shrugged.

"Level five is national security." MPU answered.

"What nation is he talking about?" Spike asked. This time Faye shrugged. A few minutes

went by and all the lines were filled with numbers and letters.

"Success!!" Ed cried and hit the enter button. Instead of opening up the files they wanted another password screen popped up. This one displaying 'Access granted. Level six security now in effect. You have one minute to enter correct passwords'. And below the statement were six lines for passwords! In the corner a clock appeared set at one minute then started counting down. Spike and Faye became worried, they were in danger of losing any information about the bounty they were after but Ed broke into a devilish grin and started typing so fast her fingers seemed to become a blur. She finished three lines in thirty seconds and had started on the forth.

"Warning. File deletion will commence in thirty seconds if passwords are not entered." MPU warned.

"Can't you go any faster?!?" Faye demanded.

"Edward is very busy right now. Call back later." Ed replied without slowing down. As the timer reached ten seconds she finished the fifth line and started on the sixth. MPU started to count down the time remaining.

"File deletion in ten, nine, eight, seven," The first three spaces had been filled but the final two were not numbers or letters. "six, five," Thinking quickly Ed began typing in combinations of symbols. "four, three, two," Ed put in the final two and punched the enter button. The countdown stopped.

"Passwords correct. Access granted."

"Wooo hooooo!" Ed squealed happily. "Edward has set a new worlds record!!" Faye exhaled loudly, she had been holding her breath and didn't even realize it. Spike gave no reaction and leaned in to see what the final two symbols were that had given Ed so much trouble. He almost fell over when he saw them. Some smart-ass programmer from fifty years ago must have thought it would be funny to put a little joke on the tail end of a password to the most closely guarded secrets on the planet. Spike decided that hackers must not change from generation to generation, the final two symbols had been a colon and the right half of a parenthesis, forming a smiley face. "Can you find the files now MPU?" Ed asked.

"One moment please." MPU replied. As he began searching Faye turned to Spike.

"What could be higher then national security?" She asked.

"Got me." Spike admitted. "But it's got to be big if they went to this much trouble to hide it."

"Files found." MPU announced. A file opened up that answered Faye's question.

Global Security File # 162950

Code Name: Predators

"Global Security?" Faye questioned. "Why would they need something like that?"

"I think the bigger questions is what are Predators?" Spike answered.

"Accessing." MPU answered as he scanned the files. "Predators are the code name given to members of an advanced alien race of unknown origin that have frequently come to Earth."

"Wow! Little green men!" Ed said excitedly

"It's official, he's got his wires crossed somewhere!" Faye interrupted. "Aliens!? You've got to be kidding! Are you sure that you didn't open some science fiction page by mistake!?"

"These files have been verified as authentic and there is no error in my retrieval of them." Was it Spike's imagination or did MPU sound offended at what Faye had said?

"It's no less crazy then anything else we've heard so far." Spike told Faye. Though truth be told he was having a hard time believing it himself. "You can ignore her from here on out." He told MPU. "What can you tell us about these aliens?" Now it was make or break time.

"While their planet of origin is unknown it is theorized that it is one of extreme temperature."

"Theorized?" Spike asked.

"Very little is known about this species." MPU explained. "Much of the information I have is guesswork."

"Well I suppose guesswork is better then nothing." Spike admitted. "Go on."

"These aliens have been coming to earth for an undetermined amount of time, and always in the hottest of weather. The earliest known record of an encounter was on a South American pyramid estimated to have been written around 5000 BC." Spike let out a low whistle. This was becoming more interesting by the moment.

"And just how could these 'aliens' be around for thousands of years and have nobody know about them?" Faye asked sarcastically. MPU remained silent. "Well spit it out!"

"I was told to ignore you." MPU answered. Ed started giggling and Spike choked back laughter. Faye was beginning to get that dangerous look in her eye again.

"Go ahead and answer her." Spike finally said.

"Very well. Any pre modern reports of these creatures were discounted as myths and legends. In the twentieth century there were reports of them during both world wars, as well as the wars in Korea and Vietnam. All of them were credited to hallucinations or to battle fatigue." None of them had any idea what MPU was talking about but they listened. "They appear to be drawn by heat and conflict. The most costly was in Vietnam where there was an estimated nine hundred men killed inside of a year."

"If there were so many reports of them why didn't they try to stop them?" Spike asked.

"Because in almost all the cases there were no survivors." MPU answered. "The only thing found were bodies that had been skinned, some of them with their heads and backbones missing." Another connection to their mysterious bounty.

"So when did they figure out it was them that were committing the attacks?"

"In the year 1987 a small group of Untied States Special Forces were dispatched to a remote section of jungle on a classified mission. During the course of the mission all but one of the team were killed by an unknown force. The only survivors were this man." A picture popped up of a tall, heavily muscled man with a crewcut. "Major Dutch Schaefer and a local women who had become involved in the original mission. In his report by Major Schaefer described a humanoid creature that killed everyone in his squad. The method of the killings were compared with the other known attacks and it was determined it was done by the same type of creature."

"How did the Major kill the thing?"

"He didn't. During their battle the creature was severely wounded and activated a self-destruct device that triggered a nuclear explosion that destroyed the equivalent of several city blocks.

"Have there been any other reports since then?" Now Spike was very interested.

"Yes, the last recorded one was in the city of Los Angeles in the year 1997. There, a small unit of men attempted to capture it but were unsuccessful and all were killed."

"So that one got away?"

"Negative. A Los Angeles police officer named Michael Harrigan claimed to have killed the one responsible for several murders and reported to have seen close to half a dozen others in their ship. This was the last reported sighting before the gate accident."

"So what do these things look like? Do you have a picture of them?"

"I have no picture but there is a composite image from the Los Angeles sightings." MPU brought up a computer-generated image. There was no mistaking it, details were different here and there but what Spike saw in that image was the same thing he had seen in the warehouse.

"Well at least we finally know what we're up against." Spike said.

"That still doesn't tell us why he's here in the first place." Faye pointed out.

"My apologies." MPU said. "You had been asking about the Predator's past and I neglected to tell you why they come."

"Well don't keep us in suspense." Spike said.

"They come to hunt." MPU answered.

"Hunt?" All three said at once.

"Affirmative. The Predators view humans as hunting sport. The skins, head and backbones are believed to be trophies taken as reminder of their hunt."

"Do they hunt anyone in particular?" Spike asked, suddenly becoming worried.

"The only connection all those killed by Predators have is that they were all armed." That was all Spike needed to hear. Digging out his communicator he hoped he wasn't too late to warn Jet.

In another section of the city the Predator continued to follow his prey. The ooman had taken many twists and turns and would have lost most pursuers but the thermal view of him and his artificial arm was a dead giveaway, even in large crowds. Deciding to wait until the prey thought it was safe before striking the Predator continued to follow, waiting for the right moment.


	5. Know Thy Enemy

Chapter 5: Know Thy Enemy

The more Jet walked the more frustrated he became. He had ducked into so many buildings, taken so many twists and turns that he had almost gotten himself lost. All this and still he could not shake the feeling he was being watched. The entire time he couldn't see any people or vehicles following. He should have been able to ditch whoever was behind him by now and it was beginning to become a frustrating effort. He was about to try ducking down another alley when the communicator in his pocket beeped. This was something he did not need right now.

"Yeah?" He answered with what little patience he had left. Spike's picture appeared on the screen.

"Good, nothing's happened yet." Spike said when Jet answered.

"Is this a social call or do you have something to tell me?" Jet asked, his patience quickly running out.

"Not now, someone might be listening in." Spike said.

[That's strange. It's not like Spike to worry about who might hear anything.] Jet thought.

"Do you still have your gun with you?" Spike asked out of the blue.

"Of course I do. Spike what is …..?"

"Get rid of it." Spike interrupted. The question and order caught Jet off guard. For one it was a stupid question and two it was usually the other way around when orders were given.

"Why would I want to get rid of it?" Jet demanded.

"Because if you don't you'll end up just like those guys in the warehouse." Spike said, sounding a little impatient himself. That caught Jet's attention. The way Spike had said told Jet that Spike knew something he didn't. Something so important that he didn't want to discuss it over the comm. His methods might need work but Jet was certain Spike knew what he was talking about.

"Alright, just let me find somewhere to pawn it off so I can get a replacement and get it back later." Spike shook his head.

"That's too dangerous. Just leave the gun on the ground."

"Too dangerous!? Listen Spike, I may or may not be being followed and I'm not going to go around unarmed."

"Jet, if you're being followed by what we think you are getting rid of the gun will make him leave you alone. He won't follow you if you're unarmed."

"Spike, that's nuts. Just who the hell do you think is after me?!"

"All I can say now is that if were right it's more then we bargained for, and going unarmed is the best option to keep yourself alive." It made no sense but nothing else had so far, and Spike sounded sure of himself. Jet took out his gun, removed the clip and ejected the bullet in the chamber then picked it up. Now sure there would be no accidents if the gun was found Jet put it on the ground.

"Ok, now what?"

"Get back to the ship and we can explain everything."

"It'd better be good." Jet warned him before he clicked off the comm. Scowling he ducked down the alley in one last attempt to lose whoever was following him. Strangely enough the feeling started to fade and that made him nervous. His best efforts to lose the tail had been unsuccessful, but after he had done what Spike had advised the effects were immediate, and then there was all the secrecy. What the hell had they gotten themselves into?

The Predator continued to follow his prey no matter how hard it tried to shake him. It was about to walk between two buildings when something it was carrying beeped. The ooman took something out of his pocket and spoke into it. A communication device no doubt, not unlike the ones oomans had used during the last hunt. What surprised the Predator was the voice that came from the device sounded like the one called Spike. There was interference coming from the device so there was a possibility he was mistaken, but when the one armed ooman had called the other one Spike he knew there was no doubt it was the same ooman that had wounded him earlier. He could only make out bits and pieces of the conversation but from the actions the one armed ooman was not happy about something. He had been called Jet, another ooman oddity. Why would someone be named after a piece of machinery? It made little sense to him, and the prey's next move was odd as well. It took out the weapon it was carrying and ejected the ammunition clip and then slid back the top portion of the weapon, causing a lead projectile that was used for ammunition to fly from it. He then picked up the unfired projectile and put the weapon on the ground, stood up and walked away. A curious choice of action, most oomans would never give up a weapon so easily. Perhaps it was a distraction, to try and throw off those he believed to be following him. A clever ploy, but an ineffective one. Still, such a situation might prove useful. If the one armed one known as Jet truly believed that he had lost his pursuers he might lead him to the one called Spike. He had originally planed to let Spike search him out, to see if he was truly the hunter he seemed to be. However an opportunity like this seldom presented itself and it was foolish to waste it. The Predator resumed his pursuit, but only at the farthest range his vision would allow to make absolutely sure that the ooman was not alerted to his presence.

Jet continued to walk in ways designed to lose anyone following him, just in case Spike had been wrong. After he was sure he couldn't feel someone's eyes boring into the back of his head he started back to where he had left the Hammerhead. When he got to it he checked it over thoroughly to make sure no one had messed with it while he was wandering in circles. There was no sign of bombs or tracking devices so he got in and started it up. As he started his vertical takeoff junk on the ground was caught in the updraft caused by the engines and began striking the hull of the Hammerhead.

"Can't those idiots do something as simple as keep a landing pad clean?" Jet asked to no one in particular. He then heard a loud clang that made him wince. "Damn it!! That's another repair I'll have to make!!" He exclaimed as he took off towards the Bebop.

The one armed male had persisted in walking irrationally in an attempt to lose his 'pursuers'. That had not lasted long because he soon believed that he was safe and returned to the area where he left his personal craft. The Predator had been hoping it was a wheeled form of transportation, that type was easy to follow. But when it turned out the ooman had a personal flying craft the Predator had been forced to change plans. Opening a small compartment on his wrist he removed a tagging device. It was seldom used but it was highly effective. If the prey was to be saved for any reason this device was used to track them until it was time for it to be killed. It was attached to a major blood vessel, usually a neck artery, and if it there was any effort to try and removed the device it would first cause great pain. If the prey persisted the device would cut through the blood vessel and death would come in a matter of seconds. It had never been used on an ooman before and it would be impossible to do so now but there was an alternative. Activating the signal beacon of the device he threw it as hard as he could at the ooman's craft. The device went inside the hull of the craft and lodged itself there. As the craft rose he activated the tracking device and the signal came through loud and clear. Now there was no need to hurry, he could track the craft wherever it went. It was only a matter of time now.

On the Bebop Faye and Ed watched as Spike sent the warning to Jet.

"Well that takes care of that." Spike said after Jet had hung up. "If MPU is right the alien should be looking for someone else to skin right about now."

"So we just sit and wait for Jet to come back instead of trying for the bounty ourselves." Faye said.

"Faye, we don't know everything that these things are capable of. We can't go after him without knowing everything possible." Spike answered.

"So lets start asking. Hey MPU."

"Yes." The AI program responded.

"What can you tell us about these Predator things?"

"What do you want to know?" MPU asked.

"Everything you've got of course!" Faye answered. "How strong they are, what weapons they use, how they sneak around with nobody seeing them. Stuff like that."

"I can only answer specific inquiries." MPU informed her. Before Faye could make a remark he spoke again. "In response to you own inquires the answers are as follows. The strength of these creatures is estimated to be at least ten times that of a normal human. The known weapons they use are as follows." The computer-generated image of the alien again appeared on screen. MPU magnified the wrist area. "On one wrist are two serrated blades made of an unknown metal. The metal is of unknown strength but it is believed to be stronger then even the highest grade of steel. On the opposite wrist is the nuclear self destruct device."

"Wait a minute." Spike interrupted. "You're telling us that this guy has an atomic bomb strapped to his wrist?"

"Affirmative." MPU answered. "According to both Major Shafer and officer Harrigan a code was needed to activate a timer that eventually set off the nuclear reaction. Officer Harrigan was able to cut the device in two during his battle and destroy it, severing the alien's arm in the process."

"It's nice to know we can destroy it without having it detonate." Spike remarked. "What did he use to do it?"

"This." MPU answered and displayed the picture of a device that looked like a discuss sharpened at two ends. "This disk is remotely controlled and is made of same material as the wristblades. In addition they have been known to carry a spear made of the same metal."

"Anything that resembles a gun?" Spike asked.

"Yes. An energy weapon is mounted on the shoulder that is capable of firing explosive bolts of energy."

"These bolts wouldn't happen to be blue would they?" Spike asked.

"According to all data yes. To continue with the original inquiry, the aliens are able to move around stealthily by using a device that enables them to blend into whatever environment they are in, rendering them almost invisible."

"How could they do something like that?" Faye asked. "Holograms?"

"You came up with that all by yourself?" Spike teased.

"Well I didn't hear you say anything intelligent." Faye responded.

"Holograms are a possibility." MPU said, ignoring the argument. "The theory that has been accepted is that these aliens have some sort of device that can bend the light around them."

"The perfect camouflage." Spike said.

"It would appear that way." MPU confirmed. "Is there any other information you would like to request?"

"Are there any weaknesses these guys have?" Spike asked after a moment of thought.

"It was once thought that they could see only in the infrared spectrum. During the attempted capture in Los Angeles suits were worn that trapped body heat but were ineffective. It is still unknown why the plan failed. Do you wish for more information?"

"I think that's all we'll need." Spike said and MPU shut down. Spike let out a sigh and leaned back. "As it stands we're up against an alien that likes to hunt armed people for sport that's ten times stronger then us, can turn invisible whenever it wants and can see in infrared." He turned towards Faye. "Feel like going after this one alone?"

"Not anymore." Faye admitted. "Suddenly it seems like even ten billion isn't enough for this. Maybe we should put this information on the net, let everybody know what's going on." Spike shook his head.

"We can't do that. People are nervous enough already. Telling them that a real alien is behind all this would cause a panic. That would give this guy a lot of targets. It looks like we're the ones that are going to have to deal with this."

"Lucky us." Faye said glumly. "About the only thing we have going for us now is that it's not following Jet anymore."

"What's not following me anymore?" Both turned as Jet walked into the lounge. They had been so preoccupied that they hadn't heard him land. "I hope you two have a good explanation for acting so strangely."

"We do Jet, believe me." Spike assured him.

"You'd better sit down for this." Faye warned him. Jet did.

"So who's behind Dragonslayer?" Jet asked.

"An alien hunter that takes human body parts as trophies." Spike said as if he was describing the weather. Jet responded by looking at Spike like he had completely flipped out. "Hey you asked." Spike reminded him.

"You had better come up with something more convincing then that." Jet said, anger showing through in his voice. "I had to ditch my gun and rush back here because you two suddenly buy into conspiracy theories!?!

"It's the truth." Spike said calmly.

"It is true." Faye seconded. "I didn't believe it myself until I saw everything MPU showed us." Jet gave her an angry glance then noticed the seriousness on her face. He turned back to Spike and saw the same look.

"You're really serious?" Jet asked. "You actually believe an alien is behind all this?" Spike nodded.

"All the evidence seems to point that way." Spike said. Jet considered it for a moment. Faye and Spike seemed to be convinced of this and if both of them could agree on this there must something be something to it.

"Ok. What do you know so far?" Jet finally asked.

"MPU can explain it better then we can." Spike told him. "Hey MPU." At the sound of its name MPU reappeared on Tomato's screen.

"Yes?" The program asked.

"Tell Jet everything you've told us so far." Spike ordered.

"Very well." MPU answered and started to repeat everything he had told Faye and Spike.

Off to one side Ein lay napping, despite all the commotion that had gone on so far. One of his ears began to twitch, trying to pick up a faint sound that the others couldn't hear. He suddenly lifted his head upright, wide awake, and looked in the direction of the hangar. His ears went back and he let out a low growl. Ed was the only one who noticed Ein's strange actions.

"What's wrong Ein?" Ed asked. Ein's only response was to growl louder. Without warning Ein jumped up and ran full speed towards the hangar barking loudly. "Ein wait up!!" Ed yelled as she ran off after him. Those gathered around Tomato paid little attention to what had just happened. Those two were always acting strangely, so why should now be any different?

Ein had a large lead on Ed and ran into the hangar first. As Ed got closer she heard more growling and louder barking, then heard Ein let out a loud yelp of pain. Without thinking Ed ran into the hangar and saw Ein lying on the floor, whining loudly, and rushed over to him.

"What happened Ein?" She asked. Ein let out another whine and looked over to the other side of the hangar. Ed looked to and saw something human shaped, but was see through. A flash of yellow came from where it's eyes should be and it rushed forward. Ed let out a short but very loud scream before a transparent hand clamped over her mouth. The hand then lifted her up and she found herself looking into a pair of glowing yellow eyes.


	6. First Battle

Chapter 6: First Battle

It had been easy to find the ship. Once the signal from the tracker stopped moving it was a simple task of following it. The signal had led the Predator to a large artificial bay, where many ooman ships were anchored. Not wanting to swim and risk his cloak shorting out the Predator had leapt from ship to ship, staying on for no longer then it took to get his balance and judge the leap to another ship. The signal came from a large ship near the center of the bay, one that was old and worn, a ship that looked like it should have been scrapped but had been kept operational long after her time. On the side there was a word crudely written, 'Bebop', most likely the name of the ship. The Predator was able to translate the letters but could not figure out the word or what it meant. Pushing that detail out of his mind he scanned the outer area for any sign of opposition. When he saw none he leapt up and grabbed the side of the vessel. He climbed up the side and pulled himself onto its deck. In front of him was an opening that led to the inside of the vessel. He entered, still wary of a trap, and observed the interior area. Pieces of machinery and metal lay strewn about, to one side were three ooman flying craft, which meant this was a hangar. He recognized the one armed ooman's craft, it appeared to be unarmed and meant only for personal transport. The other two, those were a different matter.

Both these craft had obviously been built for war. The first one had a cockpit positioned at the very front of the craft. It offered its operator an advantage in forward viewing of targets but it also provided the least amount of protection from a head on hit. Below the cockpit, mounted on pods, were two large cannons that were attached to multibarreled cylinders, meaning that both were made to fire projectiles at a high rate of speed. The other craft was built on a more conventional level by ooman standards. It resembled fighter craft oomans had used in the past, the cockpit mounted on the top with two wings for maneuverability in flight. At first the only thing that seemed out of place was the large cannon mounted on the bottom the craft. It had no visible ammunition feed, but he did recall that the oomans had begun to develop energy weapons of their own. Quite possibly this was one of them. The prospect of examining it to see how closely ooman technology matched his own was tempting but there were other matters to attend to.

Across the hangar he noticed a hatchway and was about to go to it when he heard the muffled sounds of something on the other side of the door. They knew he was here!! Before he could decide how to deal with the situation the door opened and inside ran not the armed oomans he expected but a small animal that he recognized as a dog, commonly kept by oomans as pets and as guards. These had always presented a problem on hunts because their superior ears and nose could detect them despite of the light-bending cloak. The dog charged towards him without fear and barked louder the closer he approached. The little animal was too quick to lock on with the plamcaster so he just let it approach him and when it was close enough he kicked it back across the hangar. The noise the dog had made was sure to attract attention and no sooner had that thought entered his head that something else came through the hatch. It was an ooman but not one he had expected to see. This ooman was small and thin. It ran over and talked to the dog and its voice was high pitched. All this pointed to that this was a child, but what a child be doing with hunters such as Jet and Spike? He had no time to consider the answer as the animal let out a whine and looked in his direction. The child began to look in the same direction but the Predator was already moving, if the dog didn't alert the other hunters the child would. The child let out a very loud, very high-pitched shriek before he could get his hand over its mouth and muffle it. He then lifted the child up to his eye level. It's eyes were wild and very frightened, a quick scan revealed no weapons, the only thing the child carried was a pair of large odd shaped eye lenses that it wore on the top of it's head. It was no threat to him but there was no doubt it had alerted the others, he could hear them running towards him now. That left him with only one option.

Jet's skepticism quickly left him as MPU continued to tell him about the alien hunter they all now believed was their bounty. MPU had just started to explain Major Shafer's battle when a high-pitched, ear-splitting shriek came from the direction of the hangar. As suddenly as the scream started it was cut off. The three of them waited maybe half a second before jumping up and sprinting towards the hangar. Spike and Faye drew their guns and even though Jet was unarmed he went with them, knowing that he had to help some way. Ed did have a good set of lungs but she would never scream that loud for no reason, then there was the fact that the scream had sounded terrified. Nothing had ever scared Ed before and there was nothing any of them knew that Ed would be scared of. Only one thing could have scared her that badly and it confirmed their worst fears, the Predator had found them! They stood clear of the door as Jet opened it, just in case something was waiting for them. Nothing happened so Spike entered first, covering the entire hangar looking for the intruder. He saw nothing but that could mean that the Predator was waiting somewhere invisible. Despite that he moved forward.

"Ed??" Spike called out. He heard a loud whine and instinctively aimed his gun in the direction it came from. He saw Ein lying on the ground when he suddenly looked ahead and started barking.

"Over there!!" Faye yelled and pointed to the bow of the ship. Spike saw the hazy outline of something standing on the edge. Not asking questions Spike leveled his gun and started blazing away. The hazy form disappeared and they heard a splash. Spike and Faye ran to the spot where the form had been and looked into the water. They saw something swimming away at a fast pace and both started firing at it. The form swam faster and disappeared.

"Damn it!!" Faye cursed. "How did he manage to find us like this?!?"

"Don't know." Spike answered. "But now that he's here we've got to go after him." He turned and ran for the Swordfish.

"And just how are we supposed to do that?" Faye yelled after him.

"He's got to come ashore sometime." Spike explained as he started up the engines. "We need to nail him before he can sneak back into the city."

"And what about Ed?" Faye shouted over the roar of the engines.

"I'll look for her!" Jet yelled over the din. "You two go after that thing and stop him before he kills anyone else!" Spike nodded and put full power to the engines, making the Swordfish roar out of the hangar. Faye watched him go and then climbed into the Red Tail. In a few seconds she was airborne and heading off to join Spike. After they left Jet went over to Ein and picked him up. Ein let out a whimper of pain as he was picked up.

"Easy boy, I've got you." Jet said, trying to keep Ein calm. Jet began checking for injuries and when he examined Ein's left side the reaction he got was a loud yelp of pain. "Man, he really did a number on you didn't he?" He said sympathetically. Ein gave a whine of agreement. "I know you're hurting little buddy but I can't do anything until I know exactly what's wrong, and before that I need to find Ed and see that she's alright." At the mention of Ed's name Ein began to squirm in Jet's grasp and tried to lift his head up. "Easy pal! I know you're worried about her but hurting yourself isn't going to help." Ein let out an insistent bark and continued to try and look up at him. This kind of behavior was strange, even for Ein. Jet was about to set him down to keep him from injuring himself further when something hit him on the head and clanked onto the floor. It wasn't heavy and he barely felt it but he knelt down and picked the object up. To his surprise it was Ed's netdiving goggles. Ein began barking with more urgency. Jet looked up and saw Ed tied up and hanging upside down from one of the ceiling rafters by some sort of wire, struggling with all her might to wiggle herself loose. A dirty rag had been stuffed into her mouth to muffle her yells but otherwise she seemed unharmed. "The hell?!?" Ein let out another bark and once Ed saw that she had been noticed she thrashed harder in an attempt to get loose. "What kind of shit have we gotten into this time?" He asked to no one in particular.

In the air Faye had hooked up with Spike and both had split up to cover more of the shoreline, keeping their distance from it so not to tip of the alien that they were looking for him.

"Remember to use infrared." Spike had told her. "It's the only way we're going to find this guy cloaked."

"I was paying attention in case you've forgotten." Faye had responded curtly. So she hadn't seen a thing when she saw someone climbing out of the water that began to walk towards a multilane highway. It was large enough to be their alien friend and she shut down the infrared scope to see if she could see something through a normal view. There was something there and it looked a lot like the picture MPU had showed them. Energy seemed to crackle around it but he ignored it and he began to look around. When he saw the Red Tail instead of running he just set his legs and faced her down. A red light projected from him and settled on Faye's chest. Faye prepared to dodge whatever was coming but the only thing that happened was that a sputter of sparks flew from his shoulder. After glancing at his obviously defunct weapon he turned and started running. Faye followed and briefly considered calling Spike but reconsidered. "Five billion may not be as much as ten." She told herself. "But split only one way it's almost as good." She armed the Red Tail's weapons and the computer began to lock onto her target. As her finger hovered over the firing button she could almost taste the five billion.

When he heard the other oomans coming the Predator had only one viable option left, and that was to kill the child so it could not reveal anything. He extended his wristblades and brought his arm back to deliver a killing blow, but something made him stop. Killing the child would accomplish nothing, even if he did kill it the other oomans would arrive in unknown numbers and with unknown weapons. He might be able to kill one as it entered the hangar but the others might be able to outmaneuver him in this unfamiliar environment. Backing away from a fight would seem cowardly but to stand and face an unknown enemy was tactically stupid. Acting quickly he took out a long section of wire that was used for hanging fresh kills and tied up the small ooman despite all the thrashing it did. He then picked up a dirty cloth from one of the partially disassembled machines and stuffed it into its mouth, effectively silencing it. He then leapt up and secured one end to metal frames supporting the hangar. The child continued to thrash but could not get loose, and the cloth rendered its cries inaudible. That task done he moved to the bow of the vessel to analyze the situation as it developed rather then remain at a disadvantage inside the ship. The door the child had come through reopened and at first nothing came through, the oomans must have suspected a trap of some sort and were going about the situation cautiously. The first one to step through the hatch was Spike, confirming that he had been right in guessing that the one armed ooman called Jet was indeed part of Spike's hunting party. Another ooman entered the hangar armed with a small handheld weapon similar to the one Spike held. This one was an unknown ooman and the build of it showed it was obviously a female. Jet entered after the female and no others followed him. A strange hunting party this was. A male with an artificial arm, a female who wore garments that seemed almost nonexistent, and a child that had no right to be in any hunting party. An odd group, even for oomans.

"Ed?" Spike called out. Either the name of the child or the animal. The animal!! He had been so preoccupied with the child he had forgotten to silence the dog. The dog in question chose that moment to let out a loud whine. Spike pointed his weapon at it but lowered it when he saw the dog, who began barking in his direction.

"Over there!!" The female cried and pointed at him. Spike looked up and with no hesitation started firing his weapon. With all his advantages gone the Predator had no choice but to retreat so he leapt into the water and began swimming away. The water shorted out his cloak and lead projectiles started whizzing by him. The shots missed and he swam faster to put as much distance between the oomans and himself until he could repair his cloak and regain the advantage. He stayed underwater until he reached the shore and climbed out. The cloak continued to spark but he had bigger concerns at the moment. He could hear an engine and when he turned he saw the twin gunned craft from the main ship. Piloting it was the strange female, and that meant that Spike and Jet would be piloting their own craft somewhere in the area. That could be dealt with later, right now it wouldn't be long until this craft was able to fire on him so he needed to act quickly. Facing the Twin Gun he activated his targeting laser and centered it over the female's heart. He locked on but when he tried to fire his plamcaster started hissing and throwing sparks. He had spent too long underwater and had damaged it. He looked at the weapon and at quick glance it appeared physically undamaged so hopefully it meant that all that was needed was to let the weapon to dry out. In the meantime he needed to avoid the Twin Gun and find another way to disable it so he began running. He heard the craft following him and lining up for an attack run. Listening to the pitch of the engines he heard the Twin Gun maneuvering to get the best possible shot. When the pitch stopped changing he waited only a second before diving to the side. He could not see it but he heard the craft's weapons firing and chewing up the ground behind him. When he stood he saw the craft starting to turn, setting up another strafing run. Instead of running away from the craft this time he ran towards it, hoping to confuse the female long enough so he could get under the arc of the guns before she could act.

"DAMN IT!!!" Faye yelled when the Predator dove to the side and narrowly avoided the burst of fire. "You aren't supposed to able to dodge bullets!!!" She shouted at him as she passed over.

"Faye, just what the hell are you doing!?!" Spike asked over the radio.

"Trying to catch the bounty idiot!!" Faye responded as she slammed on the reverse jets to slow the Red Tail down. "And I don't need any help!!" She added.

"Faye, these things hunt people for fun! You can't just try to take one head on alone!!" Spike replied, trying to reason with her.

"Well they never hunted anyone flying something like this before!" She answered as she went into a midair skid and turned the Red Tail around. At the same time she cycled the ammunition of the guns so now both fired missiles. "When I'm finished he'll never know what hit him."

"Hold it Faye, we know next to nothing about these things!! If we underestimate them …." Faye shut off the radio, cutting Spike off in mid-sentence. "Shit! She's just asking to get herself killed."

"Underestimate them." Faye repeated sarcastically as she pushed the throttle forward. "What does he think they can do, fly?" Ahead of her she saw the quarry in question was racing towards her on foot. She began to smile. "So much for being an advanced species. Nobody smart plays chicken with missiles." She pressed the firing button and two missiles were launched at the apparently suicidal alien.

He saw the Twin Gun fire again but this time shot two things that had very distinct heat trails. Rockets were unexpected and forced him to go ahead with his plan earlier then expected. As the rockets closed in he stopped, crouched low and launched himself into the air just before the missiles hit. The missiles, now deprived of a target, slammed into the ground and detonated.

"GOT YA!!" Faye exclaimed when she saw the missiles explode. Now she would only have body parts to turn in but Jet had told them that that would be good enough. Now the only thing let to do was figure out how to use that five billion Woolong bounty. Her thoughts were interrupted she heard a loud thunk above her and felt the Red Tail shudder. "What the hell?" She said an instant before the left side of the cockpit exploded inward, accompanied by an inhuman yell. The force behind the explosion of glass was a large fist that opened up into a taloned hand that started reaching for her. As the hand approached her Faye leaned away as far as she could, more out of disgust then fear. It was reaching in from the top of the cockpit and the Predator wasn't leaning over the edge. The hand started making grabs for her and in response she swung the controls to the right and turned the Red Tail on its side. The Predator let out a surprised yell and the arm pulled out of the cockpit grabbing the edge of the hole it created to keep from falling off. "NO RIDERS!!" Faye yelled as she added more power to the engines and started twisting and turning to try and throw the Predator off.

Spike raced towards Faye as fast as he could when the Red Tail came out of nowhere and nearly ran into him. It was flying too fast and making all sorts of dangerous loops.

"Just what the hell was that about Faye!?!?!?!" Spike yelled into the radio as he turned to follow her. If she had managed to kill the alien that was fine but showboating like that was dangerous.

"GET HIM OFF ME!!" Came Faye's frantic reply. "I've been trying to shake him off but he won't let go!" As Spike caught up he could see something on top of the Red Tail, holding on for all it was worth. As he got closer he saw it was the alien and the alien saw him. It looked at him for a second then went back to concentrating on not being thrown off.

"Stop moving and I'll try to shoot him off." Spike ordered. He could ask questions later but now he needed to get Faye out of this without having her crash.

"ARE YOU CRAZY!?!?" Faye replied so loudly that Spike winced. "If I stop moving he'll crawl in here and get me!!"

"And if you don't you're going to hit a building!" To underscore Spike's point Faye came dangerously close to clipping a skyscraper.

"If you have any _**good**_ ideas I'm all ears!!" The silence that answered her was deafening. The silence was filled when a loud thud sounded over her head. Then another, and another. When she looked up she saw the roof the cockpit had a bulge pointing down. With every thud that bulge increased in size and came closer to her head. Faye lowered her head just as the metal gave way and another fist punched its way into the cockpit. Faye ducked down as far as she could but the Predator had a long reach and was able to grab a fist-full of her hair. Faye screamed in pain as the Predator began to pull. "LET GO OF ME YOU ALIEN SON OF A BITCH!!" The Predator responded with a roar that shook the Red Tail and with a harder pull. "THAT'S IT!!" Now angry Faye flipped the Red Tail upside down and the Predator let go of her hair and grabbed the sturdier metal of the cockpit ceiling he had just punched a hole in. Approaching a building Faye made the Red Tail dip and started dragging the Predator across the roof. She heard yells of pain and felt the weight of her unwanted passenger drop away. Pulling away from the building she righted herself and turned around, firing another set of missiles at the now standing Predator. Seeing the incoming missiles the Predator jumped off from one roof onto the one of a shorter building, at the same time as he flung something at the Red Tail. Faye didn't see what he threw but felt the effects as something impacted on her right side. Alarms began blaring and the Red Tail started pitching uncontrollably, unable to maintain level flight. Looking to see what damage had been done Faye was greeted with the sight of one of her guns falling to the street below. With one of the guns gone the weight was now distributed unevenly and was forcing the craft down. As the Red Tail continued its dive Faye never saw what had hit her do a U-turn and return to the Predator's hand as he watched the craft plummet. Struggling to bring herself back under control Faye was able to crash land onto the street, smashing parked cars and sending pedestrians diving for cover. As the Red Tail screeched to a halt a crowd started to gather around it, among them three oddly familiar old geezers. They had all seen the craft fall from the sky and plow into over a dozen vehicles but still ….

"So what happened to you little lady?" Antonio asked. The question seemed to be rhetoric but he sounded like he meant it. Faye gave him a glare that would have made most grown men cower but in his senility Antonio failed to notice. "Seems like you had a little accident." Faye dropped her head in exasperation.

"Little!? You nearsighted old coot, she's darn near totaled it." Carlos responded.

"That's right." Jobin agreed "Probably take a year to fix the thing. Just look at this." He then proceeded to point out every bit of damage in detail. Faye let out a moan and slumped into her seat.

"This just isn't my day." Her statement was lost among the ever-growing crowd.

From his vantagepoint the Predator saw the Twin Gun crash and not rise again. That was one problem taken care of. Scanning the air he saw Spike's craft circling when the noise of a second craft reached him. He spotted Jet's craft as it went into a circling pattern above him. His cloak remained inoperable and his plamcaster was again functional but the water had damaged the power supply so he only had one shot. Now that he had two targets he had to think of new strategy. He took out his spear and extended it to its full length, he had his plan, now it was up to the oomans to make the first move.

Spike had been unable to do anything but watch as Faye managed to scrape the alien off like a bug. That would have kept any human down for the count but the alien just jumped up and when Faye fired her missiles jump off the building and throw something that cut one of the guns clean off it's pod. He saw the crash but was knew he couldn't do anything to help and needed to take care of the alien who just stood there waiting. He circled around for a better angle on a strafing run when Jet's voice came over the radio.

"Spike, what's going on? Where's Faye?"

"Down there." Spike answered. Jet looked down and saw a column of smoke rising from the street.

"She tried to handle this alone, didn't she?"

"Yep."

"Terrific." Jet sighed. "So what do you suggest we do?"

"Our friend is down there waiting for us do something. It would be rude of us to disappoint him." Jet looked down and saw the Predator standing on a rooftop.

"You got a plan."

"Yeah. You distract him and I'll blow him away."

"That's not a very good plan."

"Maybe, but it's the only one I've got." Jet thought it over for a moment.

"All right. I'll buzz him and you get him while he's occupied." Both of them started to maneuver into position. "I found Ed after you two took off. She was tied up but fine."

"Guess this mean that at least one of us will come out of this ok."

"Thanks for the optimism pal. You ready?"

"Whenever you are." Jet brought the Hammerhead into a dive but instead of diving out of the way the Predator hurled his spear. It hit the underside of the front and passed through it and continued in an arc until it fell into the city. Instinctively Jet pulled up and away when he was struck. In the moment of confusion the Predator turned towards the Swordfish and fired his energy weapon. The blast hit one of the wings and blew it clean off.

"SHIT!!" Spike cursed as the Swordfish dropped like a stone. Fate appeared to be with him as the fall was short and he crashed into the roof of an adjoining building. The force of the crash threw him forward into the control panel and knocked him unconscious.

The Predator had seen Spike's craft crash but Jet's was still airborne and approaching. It seemed like a foolish maneuver since the craft was unarmed. However the ooman proved he still could fight. A mechanical arm mounted on the rear of the craft swung around and, like a scorpion's tail, aimed itself at him. Rolling forward he narrowly avoided a cable shot from the arm that imbedded itself in the roof of the building he was currently on. The craft then increased the thrust to its engines but the cable had become stuck somehow. With his spear was gone and his plamcaster out of power, options were now very limited. He could use his disk but then he would risk being caught in the craft's explosion. If he left the craft alone he risked Jet working his way free and coming after him. There wasn't time to attack the cockpit itself so instead he extended his wrist blades and cut through the cable, sending the craft soaring where it eventually crashed then sank into the artificial bay. When he saw the craft land in the water he let out a loud roar of triumph. He could easily stay and finish off Spike but with his cloak still inoperable he needed to find a place to repair it. He climbed down the building and disappeared into the back streets of the city.

Jet was able to regain control and had seen Spike go down and made one last attempt to get the alien. The firing mechanism of the grappler was still working but the alien had been able to dodge it. What he found out then was that while the firing circuits were still intact the retraction controls had been damaged. The hooks remained out and no matter how much power he put to the engines he couldn't get loose. He was about to eject when instead of trying to kill him the Predator cut the cable and sent him flying into the bay. The Hammerhead lost power and started to sink so he had no choice but to eject and retrieve it later. As he floated there he heard a loud roar that was not human.

Both Faye and Spike also heard the roar but Spike had woken up in time to see the alien climb down the building and disappear. He was also able to interpret the roar loud and clear.

"Round one goes to you." He groaned as he made himself stand up. "But don't count us out just yet."


	7. Battle Plan

Chapter 7: Battle Plan

On board the Bebop Jet was assessing the damage done to Swordfish, Hammerhead and Red Tail. The Swordfish had the least amount of damage but that was putting it lightly. Having its wing blown off and crashing into a building would seem like major damage to most people but that would be before they saw the Red Tail. Here was an almost total loss. The cockpit now had two new entrances, both courtesy of their alien bounty. Jet still had trouble believing that both holes were made by fists. The impact from the crash made the once sleek looking craft dented and charred almost beyond recognition. Finally there was the Hammerhead. It had the least amount of visible damage, just a through and through hole but the real damage had been done when it had sunk to the bottom to the bay. When Jet opened one of the panels to examine how the interior circuitry held up water had come pouring out.

"Damn, it's going to take a week to repair all this." He grumbled as he picked through wires and circuits that were lying on the floor. As he tried to sort out where the parts came from he found out just how waterlogged the Hammerhead was. Everything had been soaked through; it would take at least a day for it to dry out to the point where he could work on repairs without fear of being shot through the wall by an errant electrical charge. "With my luck it'll probably rust to." He mumbled to himself as he left the hangar. [Of course that's the least of our worries at the moment.] He reminded himself as he entered the lounge. Spike looked surprisingly calm despite of everything that had happened. Faye, on the other hand, looked ready to explode at any moment. Being brought down by someone barehanded was bad enough but the Predator had also totaled her ride. Ed sat at her computer looking through the files MPU had dug up. She had seen a little shaken up when he had first cut her down but now she seemed to have bounced back to her 'normal' ways. Sometimes Jet wished they could brush off things like that so easily. Ein was lying on the table, his midsection bandaged. He had been lucky, only a few cracked ribs and no internal injuries.

"So what's the story?" Spike asked when he caught site of Jet.

"You want the bad news or the really bad news?" Jet asked in response.

"Like things could get any worse." Faye sneered.

"There's a basic law in the universe." Jet explained as he sat down. "That says that things are never so bad that they can't get worse."

"That's really encouraging Jet." Faye replied sarcastically. Jet decided to go ahead despite the remark.

"The bad news is that the Swordfish Hammerhead and Red Tail are out of commission until we can get some money to repair them, even then it's going to take a long time to get them back in the air."

"And the really bad news?" Spike asked. It was time to let the other shoe drop.

"The really bad news is that I still can't figure out how that Predator found us in the first place and I don't know if he'll come back. The best I can do for now is move the Bebop as far away from any other ships as I can. If he tries to swim out somebody is sure to spot him. Now what about you two? I'm hoping you did your best to avoid telling them what all the commotion was about?"

"Actually we told the police commissioner we were after a bounty. When he asked which one we told him Dragonslayer. Then he asked who he was so they could look for him." Spike explained.

"And what did you tell them?" Jet asked, wary of the answer.

"The truth." Spike stated calmly. "We told them that he was an alien who takes people's skulls for trophies." Jet's mouth dropped open in surprise. "We didn't exactly have a story that would sound believable, so we just told them the truth." Jet waited for him to continue but Spike remained silent.

"So he did nothing?" Jet asked.

"Oh he did something." Faye stated acidly. "He started laughing so hard he fell off his chair. After he got back up he told us that if we didn't tell the truth that we could be arrested for obstruction of justice."

"So we told him the same thing again. Then he starts to lecture us on the importance of cooperation between bounty hunters and police. When we didn't change our story he said we might have to end up paying for all the damages caused yesterday if we didn't cooperate. We didn't think he was serious." Spike finished.

"Well he was serious!!" Jet stated angrily. "We might not have any problems now but if they want to they can stick us for every single damage from the dogfight. The cops that fished the Hammerhead out of the drink told me the rough estimate, including the damage to vehicles and injuries to civilians, was over two hundred million." Spike sighed and started to look up at the ceiling. Faye's mouth hung open in surprise. "So that leaves us with one option."

"We have to catch this guy." Spike stated, still looking up at the ceiling.

"Catch!? The hell with that!! I say we kill him and drag his corpse in as proof!!" Faye shouted.

"As much as I hate to admit it I agree with her." Jet spoke up. "Trying to take him alive is too risky. Our best shot is to kill him and bring in what's left for identification."

"That won't work. They already think we're lying about Dragonslayer being an alien. If we bring him dead they'll just think it's a fraud."

"Cops aren't stupid Spike." Jet said, slightly offended at what Spike was implying. "If his body doesn't prove our story his equipment will."

"If we were dealing with level headed people it would. But what we're dealing with now is a bunch of people who think we blew up a couple of buildings for fun then lied about it. We kill him the cops are going to think we had his body and equipment made in some special effects house, no matter how high tech or authentic they look."

"So we're stuck trying to capture supposedly one of the best hunters in the galaxy." Faye said glumly. "Any ideas on how we're supposed to do that?"

"I've got one." Jet spoke up. "And it starts with old fashioned detective work. I'm going to read everything in the files MPU has, not just stuff we think we need. After that we'll see what we can come up with."

"And what if our friend decides to pay us another visit?" Spike asked. Jet took out two pairs of mechanical sunglasses and handed a pair to Faye and Spike.

"The hangar is sealed off and the bridge is wired to sound an alarm if someone breaks the glass. Those glasses are set to view in infrared, so if you hear that alarm put them on, grab whatever artillery you can and get ready."

"And what if he happens to sneak past all your little security measures?" Faye asked, unconvinced.

"That's when we use our foolproof early warning system, Ein." Ein lifted his head up and let out a whine at being volunteered. "His ears and nose already saved us once and there the best things we have for detection." Ein let out a satisfied bark at having being praised and lay back down, happy that he was able to help in such a big way.

"There's just something wrong about a dog going on an ego trip like that." Faye mumbled. Ein let out a small growl at the remark and in response Faye stuck her tongue out at him.

While the Bebop crew focused on detection across the city the Predator focused his efforts avoiding it. His plamcaster was repaired and fully recharged and the minor injuries he had sustained had been treated and gave him no trouble. But if he couldn't get his cloak back in working condition he would be forced to abandon the hunt and get a properly working unit. He had tried to activate it several times but it would only spark and sputter. Finally, after many adjustments, he activated it and again the light bent around him, leaving him free to move about as he pleased. One of his options now was to go and try to find his spear but he knew that would be fruitless. Some ooman had no doubt found it by now and it would be impossible to retrieve at this point. The next thing he needed to do was decided how to handle the prey he was now after. Spike and his hunting party had proved formidable in their flying craft but they were all destroyed now, the only one he knew for certain was still alive was Spike, but the crashes of the Twin Gun and Harpoon craft were survivable. He had to assume that both had survived and all had retreated back to the ship to lick their wounds. That was the most important decision at the moment. His tracker was still working and he could find his way back to the vessel. Should he return to the vessel or let the oomans try to find him? Going back to the ship seemed infeasible. These oomans would not be fooled the same way twice, now they would be on their guard and watching for him. Weakened as they were they could not be underestimated. They had proven themselves good fighters so far but they had not had a chance to use what made oomans worthy prey, their intelligence. It was decided, the oomans had shown him what they had for muscle, now it was time to see what they had in the way of brains. He set out to find a suitable way to test them.

On the Bebop Jet had Tomato set up on the lounge table and was reading the files with great interest. Ed hung onto the back of the couch; reading over Jet's shoulder but being surprisingly quiet. Across the table Spike and Faye sat watching the TV, looking for any leads that might show up.

"Haven't you found anything useful yet?" Faye asked Jet, impatience in her voice.

"Maybe." Jet answered, not looking up. "It says here that in L.A they were able to track a Predator to a slaughterhouse where he was feeding."

"Not many slaughterhouses around here." Spike said. "Might be able to do the same thing."

"Before you get any ideas about that the slaughterhouse was the same place they tired to capture him with those fancy suits that held in body heat. The Predator caught on and butchered the whole team."

"Just a thought." Spike answered. As Jet went back to reading Big Shot's theme started and the familiar logo popped up on the TV screen.

"Hey amigos, this is Big Shot." Punch started.

"The guide to the biggest bounties in the solar system." Judy finished.

"Well amigos we got something really big, only one bounty to show today and it's worth mucho dinero."

"Oh sugar you're not talking about that horrible Dragonslayer are you?" Judy said in obvious mock terror.

"You got it Judy. This mean old hombre has a dead or alive posted on his head for five billion dead and ten billion alive."

"That's a lot of money!" Judy broke in, bubble headed as ever.

"That's right but that's because this here is one nasty dude. He killed seventeen people so far and ….." He stopped as a hand reached onscreen and handed him a slip of paper that he unfolded and read it. "Uh oh. Looks like we got some bad news. Turns out that it's no longer seventeen victims but twenty."

"Oh dear no!!" Judy exclaimed.

"Afraid so. These three banditos were a trio of muggers that had been causing problems lately. Well they ain't goin' to be causing trouble no more. It says that they were killed in the same way other victims of the Dragonslayer were but with one very big difference. We at Big Shot got an exclusive photo that you're going to see for the first time here." The screen changed to a photograph of the murder scene. All the really gory parts were kept off camera but the camera zoomed in on a wall not far from the victims. On it, scrawled in blood, was the word BEBOP. Faye and Spike glanced at each other but said nothing.

"What's up guys?" Jet asked. Faye and Spike continued to watch but Spike answered.

"We made the news." He said without taking his eyes off the screen. "And not in the good way."

"Anything I would want to know about?" Spike didn't answer. "Guess not."

"Bebop? What's that all about sugar?" Judy asked. Jet began to listen but decided he didn't want to see what would be coming next.

"Bebop is the name of the ship three bounty hunters came from and tried to catch this slippery bastard." They then showed footage of each of their respective crashes. Spike raised and eyebrow and Faye narrowed her eyes. "As you can see, they didn't have too much luck. Two crashed real big and one turned his ship into a submarine. These bounty hunters, they seemed muy loco. This one," It showed a picture of the Red Tail. "She tired to use missiles on a person. And this dude," A picture of the Hammerhead falling into the bay was shown. "He try to catch the guy with a vehicle grappling hook. Makes you wonder if they know what they doing." Jet let out a low grumble and Faye's eye began to twitch again. "The police say that these guys were after Dragonslayer, but didn't say why they would use such loco methods to get him. Even when we asked them this is what they did."

"Did either of you two talk to anyone else except the cops?" Jet inquired.

"Not me." Spike answered. "What about you Faye? Faye?" Faye remained silent and stared at the screen, oblivious to what was going on around her. On the screen a tape was being shown of somebody behind a camera that was shoving his way through a crowd of people towards a still smoking Red Tail.

"Outta my way! Coming through! Move it bub! I haven't got all day!" He roughly pushed people aside until he came up to Faye who stood looking at the Red Tail and shaking her head. "Hey lady! You own this thing?"

"What if I do?" Faye replied when she saw that he had a camera.

"How do justify such excessive force in the apprehension of one man?" The cameraman plowed ahead. "Does this mean he's as dangerous as they say or was it some kind of personal power trip for yourself?" Faye didn't answer verbally but instead brought her arm back and camera got a very good close up of her fist before it went tumbling. When the picture came back into focus it showed a ground level shot of the cameraman, on his back and out cold. Spike and Jet turned towards Faye.

"What?! The little creep was asking for it!!" Jet pretended to go back to reading the files and Spike turned his attention back to the TV, which had now gone back to the Big Shot studio.

"Guess she was a little angry about losing such a hot ride." Punch said.

"Or maybe how much she was going to pay for it." Judy added.

"That's right. All that damage is going to cost a pretty penny to fix, and if she and her friends keep on blowing up buildings she ain't gonna fix it anytime soon."

"Awww, too bad." Judy turned to face the camera. "I feel for ya honey I really do but…." The screen exploded in a shower of sparks and flying glass. Ein let out a loud yelp and jumped off the table, almost clearing Jet's shoulder. Despite his own surprise Jet was somehow able catch him, to both their amazement. On the other side of the TV Faye sat pointing a smoking gun at the now obliterated screen. Spike had covered his head to protect against any flying glass and only after he was absolutely sure Faye wasn't going pump any more rounds into the set he cautiously lowered them. Faye still had a deadly look in her eye but lowered the gun.

"Not that I object to what you just did." Spike said calmly "But,…… COULD YOU GIVE US A BIT MORE WARNING NEXT TIME!!!

"JUST WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING!?!?!" Jet yelled. "That didn't do anything but scare the shit out of us!!!"

"But it made me feel a lot better." Faye said, beginning to smile.

"That's no excuse!!! Have you ever heard of ricochets!?!? You could have hit Ed or me!!" He turned around to make sure Ed was ok but she was nowhere in sight. "Now where did she go?" High pitched laughter start up but when they looked around they couldn't find where it was coming from. They all looked at each other then all looked up to see Ed hanging from the ceiling fan.

"Faye Faye made good light show. She made Ein fly. BOOM!" She started laughing harder.

"Well it's nice to see someone had fun with that." Jet said. To Faye he added. "Next time you get mad at the TV try turning it off."

"That's not nearly as fun." Faye responded with a smirk.

"Speaking of fun." Spike interjected, getting back on track. "Have you found anything that can help us catch this guy?"

"The stuff they have in here is sketchy, the technical readouts, physiological reports, they even tried to put together a psyche file on these guys."

"In other words no." Faye said rudely.

"Nothing direct, but I think we can improvise."

"This should be interesting." Faye replied.

"If you have a better idea I'm all ears." Faye didn't answer. "All right then. We don't know how long this Predator has been in the city, but he can move around and attract little or no attention. Even with a cloaking device that should be hard, and that means he probably familiar with the territory. What we need to do is lure him somewhere where the environment is unfamiliar and we can use to our advantage. After thinking it over this would probably be the best place." Calling up a map of the city Jet zoomed in on a large factory type building.

"A metal processing plant? What makes that the best place?" Spike asked.

"There are a lot of places that a person can hide body heat without elaborate means. Also the intense heat will hopefully throw off the alien's infrared vision."

"He can see in more then infrared Jet." Spike reminded him.

"I know that, but without knowing exactly what kind of vision he has we have to work with what we've got."

"I say we go for it." Faye volunteered "It beats sitting around here waiting for him to come back."

"Well Spike that only leaves your vote." Spike just shrugged.

"Why not. The worst that can happen is we'll be killed."

"Nice to she you still look on the bright side of things Spike." Faye said coyly.

"If you two are finished we have a plan to make. This plant is mostly automated so we'll only have to take care of a few guards."

"Ok we get in. How do we lure our friend there and how do we catch him without him setting off his self destruct device?"

"To answer that I'm going to call a friend of mine that has some connections we can use. In the meantime get any weapons and equipment you'll need ready." As Jet went to place the call Faye and Spike checked their guns and infrared glasses to make sure they were working. "I've got a meeting place all set up and we need to get there before nightfall." It was a little embarrassing hitching a ride to shore but they didn't have much choice. Jet led them to a pawnshop run by a weasly looking man with greasy hair and a dirty jacket.

"Well if it isn't Jet Black come to visit one of his down on his luck friends."

"Stuff the poor guy act Joe. Do you have what I asked for or not?"

"Oh I got the stuff. Question is what do you want with all this?" Joe asked as he set the stuff on the counter. "Flare gun with three flares, two road flares, two tranquilizer pistols and sixteen darts, each loaded with enough juice to knock out five men, complete with belt holster and pouch to hold the darts. Fifty feet of steel alloy chain. MP5 with laser sight, five clips of ammunition, now that makes the most sense of the group. The other stuff though…."

"The first rule of this business is not to ask questions." Jet warned.

"Right. So how you going to pay for all this?"

"You said that my credit is good here so just put it on my tab. I should be able to pay you back in a few days."

"And if you don't?" Joe asked suspiciously.

"Lets just say I won't expect you to be at my funeral." Joe raised an eyebrow but just shrugged and went back to work. After they left Jet handed Faye and Spike the tranquilizer pistols and eight darts each. He loaded the MP5, chambered a round, and then slung it over his shoulder.

"Hey wait a minute! Why do you get a real gun and we get this crap!?" Faye protested, motioning to her tranquilizer pistol.

"Because I'm going to be running interference, you two are the ones that are going to bag our bounty."

"And after he's knocked out we tie him up with that chain and drag him to the cops." Spike finished.

"Simple really." Jet mentioned.

"And if this little plan of yours doesn't work?" Faye asked.

"Think of it this way. At least we'll be immortalized in the guy's trophy case." Spike put in.

"That makes me feel a whole lot better." Faye sneered. Securing the processing plant turned out to be easy. After tying up two security guards and locking them in a janitor's closet they put their secret weapon in the control room. Faye and Spike hid themselves among the vats of liquid metal and machinery as Jet went up to the roof. Once he was on the roof he took out the flare gun and loaded his first flare.

"Guess it's do or die time." He said to himself as he pointed the gun straight up and fired.

Several blocks away the Predator stood overlooking the scene where he had left the message for the hunting party of the Bebop. Several hours had passed and they were nowhere in sight. He expected them to at least respond to the challenge but none had come to investigate it. He was about to give up when a flash caught his attention and almost overwhelmed his vision when he turned to look at it. After adjusting to deal with the intensity he saw a ball of light floating down from the sky. He began to ponder the meaning of the light when another smaller ball of light shot into the sky and exploded into a much brighter one. Looking in the direction of the souse of the light he saw a third ball shoot from the top of a building. Zooming in on the building he was surprised to see the one armed one called Jet was firing them into the air. Jet then took out two things and somehow ignited them, giving off a glow that again threatened to overwhelm his thermal vision. After laying the burning sticks down brought out a weapon and began scanning the horizon. These oomans were cleverer then he gave them credit for. Instead of reacting the way they were expected to a challenge they had responded with a challenge of their own. He let out an approving growl and began to make his way around other buildings so he could approach that one from behind and hopefully avoid any detection they had waiting for him.

On the roof Jet scanned the rooftops with his infrared glasses, watching for anything strange. The plan was simple. Once the Predator showed up he engage him in combat and lure him down into the plant so they could capture him. He should be attracted to the heat of the flares and since he didn't know all of them had infrared specs he would approach from the front. The only problem was he was nowhere in sight and that began to make him nervous.

Climbing up the building the Predator pulled himself onto the roof. Jet was still looking in the opposite direction, expecting him to come from the direction he was facing. This proved that they had something they at least thought would compromise his cloak. Unfortunately for them they had grossly underestimated their opponent. Clenching his fist he extended his wristblades and stalked forward to collect his first trophy of the night.


	8. The Trap is Sprung

Chapter 8: The Trap is Sprung

The longer he had to wait the more nervous Jet became. Not knowing what the alien might do weighed heavily on his mind so when he noticed movement on an adjacent building he had brought up the MP5, snapped off the safety and took aim. Instead of seeing an alien monster he saw several small creatures take flight and heard the fluttering of wings.

"Damn birds!" He growled to himself as he lowered the gun. He was starting to jump at shadows, and he didn't know if the Predator would even show up. As soon as that thought entered his mind he heard a loud metallic click from behind him. Whirling around his specs showed him something big that stopped moving when he turned. For a moment neither of them moved. Whoever he was looking at remained absolutely motionless, acting like he thought Jet couldn't see him. This guy either thought Jet was blind or he thought he was truly invisible. That could only mean one thing and Jet went for his gun.

The ooman had been alert and heard the wristblades extending and quickly turned around. In response the Predator had froze in its tracks. Jet was again wearing the dark eye lenses but those had proven to be ineffective before so the Predator was not worried. He was carrying a weapon and his state of alertness made it quite possible that he would use it at even if he only had slight suspicion. If, however, Jet let down his guard he would not be tempted to reach for his weapon. For a moment it looked like the tactic was working, Jet just stood there just looking straight ahead, but instead of turning back around he grabbed and raised his weapon. He dove to the side as the ooman fired a burst.

The alien had begun moving before Jet had a chance to take aim so he fired a long burst that chased the alien across the roof and behind one of the air conditioning units. He continued to fire, hoping that he could keep the alien pinned down until he could reach the door letting him back downstairs. Unfortunately like many police, and even soldiers, in the heat of battle Jet had forgotten just how quickly a thirty round clip could run out on full automatic fire. Like all others the only reminder he got was when the bolt locked and instead of the crack of bullets flying all he heard was a hollow sounding click. At that moment the click was louder then anything Jet could have imagined.

"GOD DAMN IT!!!" He cursed as he ejected the empty magazine and reached for a fresh one. As he slammed home the new magazine he heard a loud war cry and looked up he saw the Predator leap over the unit and charge straight at him him.

The Predator cursed himself at being caught off guard so easily. It was one thing to respect ooman intelligence but being fooled by it was a completely different matter. Crouching behind the machine unit he could hear the sound of the lead projectiles hitting it but they did not have sufficient power to penetrate it. While planning his next move he deactivated his cloak, there was no sense in using it if they could see him with or without it. He waited patiently, the weapon Jet had could fill the air with projectiles but its ammunition was finite and continuous fire could not be maintained. When the hail of projectiles stopped he did not move, this could be a trap to lure him out into the open. However when the fire had stopped the ooman let out a loud curse. Whether he was cursing himself or his weapon, it didn't matter. All that did was he was distracted and now was the time to strike. Bellowing a battle cry he leapt over the machinery unit and rushed toward the ooman with his wristblades raised.

The gun had a fresh clip in it but Jet had no time to chamber a round, to do so would have left him wide open. With what little time he had he raised the MP5 up in a futile hope that it would block the two blades the alien swung at him. His effort seemed to be in vain as the blades shattered the gun and cut into his chest. The cuts were deep and bleeding but didn't do any serious damage. The alien swung the blades upward to finish the job but Jet was able to back up and avoid them. He began to feel the pain from the cuts and clutched his chest and bent over.

"GOT YA!!" The alien yelled in Faye's voice, and raised the blades to deliver a killing blow. Maybe it was the fact that he was being toyed with like an animal, maybe it was because he had been losing so easily to this guy, or maybe it was hearing Faye's smug voice coming from a would be executioner. Whatever it was Jet would be eternally thankful for the surge of adrenaline at that moment. Instead of trying to dodge the blow he knew was coming he lowered his shoulder and rammed into the alien like a football linebacker with all his strength. The alien let out a surprised grunt and didn't fall but he did have to shift his footing, offsetting his center of gravity. Using that as leverage Jet lifted the alien up and slammed him onto his back with all the strength he could muster. So heavy was the alien and so hard was the bodyslam a large dent was formed in the metal roof. That would have easily killed or at the very least crippled an ordinary person the alien wasn't even phased and kicked Jet in the chest.

"SHHIIIIIIIITTTTTTTTT!!!!!" Jet yelled as he literally went flying across the roof. He landed hard and despite having the wind knocked out of him scrambled to get up. "Tougher then he looks." He said to himself as he stood. He had lost his infrared glasses but saw that the alien was already on his feet. He didn't know why the alien had shut off its camouflage and really didn't care, just so long as he didn't turn it back on. The picture from the files was nothing like seeing the real thing. "Man you really are one ugly son of bitch aren't you?" He told the Predator. With its faceless mask and snakelike skin, combined with his size and menacing posture along with his fighting skills, he saw just how they had earned their reputation over the years. Jet knew that he wouldn't be able to get back to the door, he couldn't make it past the alien alive. He would have to do as much damage as he could and hope it would be enough. He took out his spare pistol with his right hand and his communicator with his left and turned it on. Spike immediately answered.

"Jet what's going on up there!?!"

"Our friend decided to get sneaky on us and took me by surprise. I'll get him to fight me as long as I can, after that it's up to you."

"You don't think you're going to make it?" Spike asked, sounding reserved to the fact that there was nothing he could do.

"Not unless I can get extremely lucky." Jet answered, surprising himself on how calmly he was talking about his almost certain death. As he talked he maneuvered himself to one of the skylights that dotted the roof, keeping his pistol trained on the Predator the whole time. It was following him but not making any aggressive movements. Stopping just before the skylight he stopped and stared the Predator down. After a moment three red beams of light extended from the thing and settled on Jet's throat.

That was twice Jet had surprised him since the battle began. Pretending to be more seriously wounded then he really was had given him the opportunity to attack. A clever ploy, and though spirited, the attack was weak and easily countered. Standing he saw the ooman also on his feet and aiming another, smaller weapon at him and speaking into his communicator. Accepting that they knew he was here he made no attempt to stop him. The ooman looked taken aback by the results of his failed attempt but the weapon never wavered. Slowly the ooman maneuvered himself to one of the spots of the roof that was slightly hotter then the rest of it. Why wasn't his concern. His only concern was killing this prey before it could make any more unseen moves. He could rush him but at this distance the ooman was sure to hit him with his weapon. It was small but there was always a chance that one projectile would find a weak spot in the skin and hit something vital. They were at a standoff, and there was only one way to end it. He had been hoping to fight this ooman hand to hand but its use of a weapon left him no choice so he activated his targeting lasers and centered them on his throat.

As soon as Jet saw the red beams he began to bring his left arm up to block them. A blue light shot from the shoulder of the Predator and Jet managed to get his arm up just as the blast was fired. The blast hit his forearm and under normal circumstances the it would have passed thorough and continued into his throat, but the extreme luck Jet had been hoping for came through. His metal arm managed to disperse the energy of the blast but its sheer power caused the arm to explode all the way up to the shoulder. The arm itself had no pain receptors so losing it was painless but the explosion had thrown shrapnel into Jet's face and burned it, thankfully with no damage to his eyes. Flinching at the explosion and staggering back, he felt no pain as the adrenaline started pumping again and he forced himself to look through the haze that a second ago had been his arm. The Predator had flinched also, the heat from the explosion overwhelming its vision. Aiming his gun Jet started firing at the thing's head. The disorientation from the explosion caused most of the shots to go wide and those that made it ricocheted harmlessly off the mask. Counting his shots carefully this time Jet stopped firing when he had one bullet left. The Predator growled angrily but Jet just looked down through the skylight. He was starting to feel lightheaded from his injuries and the loss of his arm, though painless, had been just as traumatic as losing the real thing. He was on the end of his rope and he knew it, he couldn't fight and he couldn't run. That left him with plan B, which was just as suicidal as anything Spike ever did. His luck had held out his long, no reason to think it would stop. As the Predator approached Jet couldn't help but smile.

"Murphy's laws of combat." He told the Predator. "If it's stupid but it works," He cocked the hammer of his gun. "Then it isn't stupid." He fired straight down and shattered the skylight making him fall down into the building.

When the artificial arm of the ooman had exploded the Predator had been unprepared and the flash had overpowered his eyes. When he regained sight he saw that the arm had been completely destroyed but the ooman was still standing somehow. He was angry, not so much that the ooman had survived, that was a testament to their resiliency and even for an ooman this was impressive. His chest was still bleeding, his face was cut and burned, all that and even the loss of an arm had not brought down this one. What angered him the most was that he had lost a fine trophy. The arm would have proved the advancement of the oomans to all back home, the first trophy of its kind. The ooman then started firing his weapon but most of the projectiles had either missed or were deflected by his mask. He growled at the ooman and stalked forward. The ooman just looked down and started smiling, perhaps the pain of its injures had driven it mad. It then said something that sounded like a riddle and fired its weapon straight down. He could hear glass shattering and the ooman fell through a hole and disappeared. When he went to the hole and looked down he saw the ooman had landed on a suspended metal walkway and was staggering away. Determined to finish this the Predator let out another battle cry and jumped through the hole onto the metal walkway.

The first thing that had surprised Jet was the fact that he wasn't dead and that his plan had actually worked. He started forward but had twisted something in his leg during the fall and was forced him to hobble down the catwalk. He got another surprise when he saw Faye standing about a hundred feet down the walkway. Even from this distance and his blurred vision he could see the look on her face, extreme surprise at seeing him there and so bloodied up. He then heard the alien yell again and jump onto the catwalk behind him. That he had expected, what surprised him was that the catwalk broke under the alien's immense weight and sent it falling to the ground. Jet fell forward as the section he was on gave way and grabbed onto one of the rails, something that would have normally been futile but instead of breaking off the section remained attached to the rest of the catwalk and hung there like it was attached with a hinge. Jet was within arms reach of the next section and solid ground but without his other arm he couldn't reach for it. As he hung there he felt his fingers loosening despite his efforts to maintain a death grip. He tried to tighten his grip but the effects of his injuries were catching up to him he felt himself slipping when his wrist was grabbed by two hands.

When they had taken up positions inside the plant it was agreed that Spike would stay on the ground floor and Faye would work her way up to the highest point to get the best possible shot. Both were keeping their glasses off until they were needed to avoid the same problems the Predator would have. Being closer to the roof Faye was able to make out the sounds of battle above her, she had heard gunfire then Jet and the Predator yelling. Then there was a loud crash that made her start and when she looked in the direction it came from saw a bulge in the roof that looked like the one the Predator had made punching his way into the Red Tail, only much, much larger. The call Jet made to Spike came over her communicator to and when she had heard Jet make his little speech she had wanted to say something but bit her lip. His mind was made up and going to help him was out of the question. She could only do the same thing as Spike; hope Jet came out of this all right. The next thing she knew she heard an explosion that sounded like it was almost right over her head. As she tried to figure out what it could have been a skylight not far from her shattered and Jet fell through it. His chest and face were bleeding and his left arm was completely gone, the only thing left was a smoldering stump at the shoulder. Jet began to limp towards her when the Predator jumped through the shattered skylight after him. She only had a fraction of a second to process the fact that she could see the alien when he hit the catwalk and then fell through it. It was only partly good news as the section Jet was on fell with the rest them. She ran over to the newly formed edge of the catwalk and saw Jet trying to hang on. When his grip began to fail without even thinking about it she reached down and grabbed his wrist with both hands. Digging in her heels she pulled upward as hard as she could, below them she could hear the Predator roaring in pain but she couldn't dwell on the fact that he had survived the fall. Giving the arm another yank she managed to clear up the fog in Jet's brain by almost pulling his shoulder out of its socket and he let out a yell of pain.

"Glad to see you're awake!! Now could you please give me a little help here?!?!?" Faye yelled. Gathering his wits Jet started to pull himself up. With the combined effort Jet was about to make it to the top when Faye suddenly stopped.

"FAYE!! What's the big idea!? Help me get up before I lose my grip again!!!" Faye said nothing and just looked at her hand, eyes wide as saucers. Twisting his head to get a better angle Jet saw three red dots on the back of Faye's hand forming an upside-down triangle. The dots traveled up her arm and settled on her forehead, where she tired to look at it cross-eyed. She let out a loud gulp and looked down the length of the beams and saw the Predator calmly aiming his shoulder cannon. Faye and Jet froze and waited for the end to come.

When the Predator hand landed on the metal walkway he felt the metal give and realized he had misjudged the walkway's strength and fell downward. It wasn't a hard fall to take, forty-five feet, perhaps fifty at most. The problem wasn't the fall but the environment he had fallen into. Around him vats of molten metal were being moved and poured. Large slabs of red and white hot metal were being pounded into shape and transported around on cables. All the heat had overloaded his helmet visor and was threatening to damage his eyes. Almost franticly he changed his view to ultraviolet and the majority of the glare vanished. The metal still glowed but at a comfortable level that wouldn't ruin his vision. Scanning the area around him he could find no sign of Jet, even though he had seen him begin to fall. Looking up to where he had fallen from he saw two forms. Jet was hanging over the edge of the walkway and began to fall when the female ran up and grabbed his one remaining hand. The female pulled and Jet started to climb up, yelling insults at each other the whole time. This was intriguing, during the pursuit in her vehicle the female had shown arrogance and hostility towards her fellow hunters, only asking for help when things had turned against her. Now she showed loyalty by trying to save her wounded comrade. It might be a trap so he made sure to scan all possible hiding spots. He found no evidence of another ooman and decided to test just how deeply the female's loyalty really was. Activating his targeting lasers he set them on the female's hands, the area where her eyes were focused. As soon as she saw them her efforts to pull Jet up ceased, but she did not let go. She stared at her hand like a frightened animal so he moved the lasers up her arm and onto her head. Despite this she still did not drop her comrade and try to save herself. The Predator growled approvingly, the female showed she was willing to accept a warrior's death, and that's just what he would give her. The targeting system flashed as he locked on.

On the catwalk Faye was still staring down at the Predator like a deer caught in headlights.

"Faye! FAYE!! SNAP OUT OF IT!!!" Jet shouted. That caught Faye's attention and she looked back down at Jet. "Let go of me and take cover!! I'm just weighing you down!!"

"No way!" Faye said as she grit her teeth and redoubled her efforts. "I'm not going have your death on my conciseness."

[Yeah, you'll just have both our deaths instead.] Stealing a glance down he saw the Predator flinch and grab his side at the same moment he fired his shoulder cannon. "LOOK OUT!!" Faye responded with one last heave that dragged Jet over the edge and took a step backwards. That step saved her life as the blast passed the front of her face so close she could feel the heat from it, making her stumble and fall backwards. When she looked down she saw the Predator aiming his shoulder cannon at a slab of metal that was leaning against a wall. Just as the blast hit the slab Spike rolled out from behind it and fired his tranquilizer gun again. The alien turned to one side and the dart sailed past him.

"It's about time you caught on! It was getting cramped back there." Spike said as he dove into maze of conveyor belts and other machinery. The Predator let out an angry roar and gave chase, forgetting about Faye and Jet. With the danger passed Faye went over to Jet and rolled him over. Even though she had seen what injuries he had when he came through the skylight she still gasped when she saw the amount blood coming from his chest wounds.

"Jeez! What did he do to you?" Faye asked as she took her jacket off and used it to put pressure on the two slashes.

"He messed me up royally." Jet replied weakly.

"Well at least we had some good came out of it." Faye said.

"We did?" Jet said doubtfully.

"Yeah. You might be in bad shape, but at least you had to of done some damage to him."

"Well to tell the truth,….. " Jet said sheepishly.

"You mean after everything I heard on the roof you weren't able to do anything to him!?!?" Faye asked incredulously.

"Oh I was able to do something." Faye looked at him hopefully. "I managed to really piss him off." Faye's face fell and from deep within the plant they heard another loud yell that couldn't be human.

When Spike had taken up a hiding place he had chosen the metal slab for one big reason. The metal was thick enough so that even if he didn't use infrared he still wouldn't see him unless they had X-ray vision. The downside was that it was extremely uncomfortable and his muscles had begun to cramp up. He stuck it out and when Jet had called he had gotten his glasses and tranq gun in preparation. He heard the sound of glass breaking and a yell similar to the one he had heard back at the warehouse. He then heard stuff crashing to the ground and a surprised sounding roar from the same source. Grabbing the glasses he stuck one lens out and looking at the reflection saw the Predator getting up from the fall. It started looking around but didn't seem to notice him and began to look up at something. Changing the angle of the lens he saw Faye holding onto Jet, barely keeping him from falling. The Predator turned on the targeting lasers for his shoulder cannon but did not fire. He shifted the lasers then growled for some reason. Taking out the tranquilizer gun he stuck it around the corner and using the reflection began to take aim. Hitting from this angle was going to be tough but any other way and he would reveal his location. After pulling the trigger he pulled his hands back and waited. As he reloaded he heard a surprised yell and a second later a large hole was blasted in the metal slab. Knowing that the Predator would just keep shooting holes in it until he hit something Spike rolled out and fried another dart but missed.

"It's about time you caught on! It was getting cramped back there." He shouted, hoping to lead him away from Jet and Faye. The roar that he heard from behind him proved that it had worked. Now all he had to do was stay alive long enough to capture it.

The Predator had locked onto the female and had activated the firing mechanism when something struck him in the side, causing his entire body to flinch but his shot was on target and he saw the female fall. She succeeded in pulling Jet up but he was too badly wounded to be of any threat now. Clutching his side he pulled out a small feathered object. He recognized the design as being a version of the dart launcher that was used whenever prey had to be taken alive. He growled at the implication. They were trying to capture, not kill him. It was not the first time oomans had attempted this but this group was nowhere near as organized as the others had been. The skin around the area where the dart struck was numb but other then that he felt no ill effects. Turning in the direction the dart had to have come from he saw nothing suspicious. Spike must have been hiding somewhere and eluding his detection. Narrowing down where he might be the Predator focused on one section of wall that gave off a strong glow and fired a plamcaster blast into it, hoping to flush Spike out. It worked but as Spike came out from behind it he fired a weapon that did not give off the loud crack associated with ooman firearms. He turned to one side and felt something go past him a subsonic speed. Spike was wielding a dart gun and had been the one that shot him with the first dart. Spike then taunted him and disappeared deeper into the building. Giving a battle cry he followed the prey.

So far the plan had been a bust. The Predator had gotten the drop on them and as they had feared he was somehow able to overcome the heat problem. Spike had retreated into another section of the plant that pounded the heated metal slabs into sheet metal; mechanical arms lifting the metal multi-ton slabs like they were made of paper. Hiding behind one of the conveyor belts Spike saw the Predator enter the area and start looking around for him. It then began to mess with something on its wrist. Knowing he had to lure the alien closer for the new plan to work and now would be the perfect chance he popped up and fired another dart that hit but again all the Predator did was pull it out and throw it away. It did give away his position and the Predator leapt over several of the conveyor belts and landed about fifty feet away from Spike.

"Kill you." It said in an unfamiliar but distinctly human voice and switched on its targeting lasers. Spike calmly pulled out his communicator even as the beams settled on his forehead.

"I don't think so." He told the Predator, who gave a confused grunt. Spike flicked on his communicator. "NOW!!!" He shouted. A loud whirling sound of machinery filled the air as one of the mechanical arms used to lift the sheet metal clamped down around the Predators midsection, pinning his arms to his sides, and lifted him off the ground as he howled and thrashed in protest. In the control room Ed giggled and clapped her hands watching events unfold through the plant's security cameras.

"Turnabout is fair play. You caught Edward and now Edward has caught you." Ed sang as she made the arm wave from side to side, shaking the Predator like a rag doll.

As he had followed Spike the Predator was on the look out for traps. Spike led him to a room where the heat had dropped to a level that he could go safely go back to infrared and as he was shifting vision another dart struck him. He removed it and saw Spike standing with the dart gun aimed at him. He leapt over and tried to scare him but the ooman had just responded to him in a calm fashion and yelled something into his communicator. Tired of these games he locked on and was about to fire when something loud caught his attention. He was about to turn towards the new threat when something clamped onto him and squeezed him like a vise. He was lifted up into the air and saw that one of the arms used for labor had gotten a mind of its own and now held him captive. He tried to force his way out but the arm was far stronger then he was. As the arm started to throw him from side to side he could feel rage building from within. They were mocking him!!! Inexperienced hunters would have continued to try to overpower the arm and exhaust themselves but he managed to keep his head and examined the machinery as best he could, trying to find a weakness. He found one but could not get a chance to exploit it while he was still shaking. He heard Spike say something then a second later the shaking stopped. Not wasting time he targeted one of the arm's joints and locked on.

Spike watched as Ed continued to shake the Predator, enjoying the scene but quickly got back to business.

"That's enough Ed. I need you to hold him still so I can knock him out."

"Spike person wants bulls-eye and Edward will give him one." Ed answered. Even though the situation seemed under control Spike still had reservations. The alien had taken two direct hits and remained unfazed. He only had four darts left not counting the one already loaded, not a good sign to use almost half his ammunition and have none of it be effective. Ed stopped the arm and Spike took aim but saw the alien's targeting lasers come on. He prepared to dive out of the way but stopped when he noticed the beams weren't aimed at him but at the arm. The cannon fired and hit one of the arm's joints and blew it off. As the arm fell to the ground the cannon shifted towards his direction and Spike rolled out of the way as the Predator began firing the cannon in his direction without aiming. The alien forced the arms clamps apart, stood, and rushed forward. Spike got to his feet and tried to aim his gun but the Predator was faster and knocked the gun from his hands. Spike slowly backed up and the Predator extended his wristblades.

"Failure." It said in Vicious' voice. Spike narrowed his eyes and began slowly reaching for his own gun, but doubted he could draw it in time. Before he had a chance to find out shots started to echo around them and the Predator stiffened up as he let out a roar of pain. It turned and looked up and when Spike looked he saw Faye standing on one of the catwalks aiming a smoking gun. Spike also noticed that the Predator now had several holes in his back that were bleeding a green, glowing blood. The Predator paid no heed to the wounds and set his targeting lasers on Faye's head. Instead of running Faye took careful aim and fired. The shot hit the shoulder cannon, which started smoking and sparking. Bellowing an angry roar the Predator yanked the cannon off his shoulder and threw it as far as he could. It then leapt up to the catwalk fifteen feet above him and started to chase the now running Faye.

Madness!! This was all utter madness!! He had gotten away from the arm and was about to kill Spike when he had been struck in the back. When he faced his attacker he saw the female that was supposed to be dead. How many lives did these oomans have?! The wounds she inflicted weren't fatal but this annoyance couldn't be allowed to remain alive. When he tried to use his plamcaster the female had fired one shot, not at him but the plamcaster itself. The lead projectile had been on target and gone into the weapon's barrel, completely destroying the interior of it. It was useless to him now so he had discarded it so it could not turn into a hindrance. The female turned and fled, Spike was unarmed and no longer a danger, so he jumped up to the walkway and perused the female. The female had not run far when it stopped, turned around and leveled her weapon. Rather than stop the Predator kept coming and raised his arm to shield his throat against the fire that was sure to come. The female began firing with a calmness not seen in many oomans when facing down a charging opponent. Most shots bounced harmlessly off the band that held his wristblades or off his helmet. One buried itself in his shoulder and another in his right arm but he ignored the pain and kept on going. When he was just outside of arms reach the female discarded her weapon and brought out a weapon similar to the one Spike had. Dropping to a kneeling position she aimed and fired a dart that hit his leg. Another trick!! She had made him defend the upper portion of his body while leaving him open to another shot of whatever was loaded into those darts. From the reactions they had displayed every time he had been hit they must have thought whatever was in the darts would have dropped him instantly. That wasn't the case but the chemical in the darts was beginning to have an effect. He began to feel wooziness in the back of his brain and his vision began to blur around the edges but forced it out as he plowed ahead. He grabbed the gun with his right hand and punched the female in the face with his left, sending her to the ground. Out of habit he had grabbed with his right, if he hadn't the female's head would now be impaled on his wristblades. He growled at his own stupidity, crushing the gun with his bare hand as he looked down at the dazed female. The punch hadn't been hard, he wanted her to see the end coming. She also deserved some form of recognition for the way she had fought and the challenge she gave him. He had the precisely the right thing, both a complement and an insult at the same time.

Faye could only watch as the Predator stood over her, waiting for some reason. It had all seemed like a good idea at the time. After using her jacket as a makeshift bandage she had left Jet on the top level, despite his protests. The bleeding had stopped but he was too weak from the blood loss so she had to do this on her own. As she worked her way down to the lower levels of catwalks she had seen the Predator fighting Spike, his back to her. It was a perfect shot but rather then risk the tranquilizer not working she instead took out her Glock. Taking aim she fired six shots in quick succession, all of which hit the alien in the back. Instead of dying or dropping to the ground withering in pain, like he should have, he had turned around and pointed that fancy shoulder gun at her. She didn't have time to be scared. Instead of running she leveled her gun and shot the cannon almost off his shoulder. The sounds she heard coming from its owner made it clear that was very angry. Now would be the time to run and she did, as fast as her legs could manage. As she ran she felt the catwalk shudder and risking a glance behind her she saw the Predator hot on her heels. With a sigh she realized she couldn't outrun him so she turned and reacted with the only language he understood, violence. Now she didn't expect him to turn tail and run but the last thing she expected was for him to run headlong into an onslaught of bullets. A few connected but didn't stop him. When he was almost on top of her the Glock ran out so she threw it away and drew the tranquilizer gun. Keeling, she aimed for his unprotected legs and scored a hit. This one had even less effect on him then the one Spike had hit him and he had grabbed the gun from her hand and punched her. Her world went spinning and she could barely feel the metal of the catwalk under her. Looking up groggily she could hardly make out the shape of the Predator but she heard it growl and then heard it speak.

"Tough bitch." It said in Jet's voice. The fog in Faye's brain burned away and her vision became sharp and clear. She then kicked the alien in the gut with every ounce of her strength.

As soon as he had spoke the female had kicked him in the stomach with surprising strength; surprising but inefficient. Grabbing her ankle he swung the female above his head and swung her back down to the catwalk, hard. Her heartbeat and respiration indicated she was unconscious. He prepared to finish her when a heavy weight fell onto his back and something wrapped around his neck.

"Try picking on someone your own size you bastard!!" Jet's voice rang in his ear. Despite the injures he had dealt Jet on the roof he had worked his way down here and continued to fight, even if he was half-dead. A true showing of ooman redundancy but right now just a very large annoyance. Jet's attempt at a chokehold did him no good so the Predator grabbed his arm and threw him over his shoulder. Instead of letting go he held onto Jet's remaining arm and held him out at arms length. "Go ahead!" The ooman snarled with no trace of fear in its voice. He brought back his wristblades in order to oblige him when a projectile whizzed by right in front of his face. Looking down he saw Spike aiming another weapon up at him.

"Put him down." Spike ordered. The Predator gave him a curious look. " I know you can understand us so get this straight. Your beef is with me. I'm the one that shot you at the warehouse, and you're the one that nearly took off my arm." He gestured at one of his shoulders. So he _had_ hit him at their first encounter. "If you don't I do this." He pointed the gun at his own head. Suicide rather then see his two hunting partners die? An odd form of loyalty but admirable. "If you do I'll fight you right here and now." He put the weapon onto the floor. He then removed the coat he was wearing and rolled up the sleeves of his shirt. "Make your move." The weapon was still within reach and he did not try for it, but he did not get rid of it either. So he was asking for a show of faith. The possibility was intriguing. If his two comrades had lasted this long their leader would be a greater challenge still. And he was willing to face him in unarmed combat, its purest form. He retracted his wristblades and continued to watch Spike, who nodded and kicked the gun away.

"Spike don't!!" Jet yelled out in warning. "You can't beat this guy!! He'll…." Tired of the ooman's ranting the Predator punched him with the fist that a second ago would have split his skull. Instead Jet was rendered unconscious and after making sure he was still alive the Predator dropped him onto the catwalk with the female. He then jumped down and faced Spike. Reaching up he disconnected the two hoses that gave him breathable air in this alien atmosphere. He then slowly removed his mask so Spike would see the face of his executioner.

[This is probably the stupidest thing I've ever done.] Spike thought to himself as he made his challenge. [But it's not like we have a lot of options left.] When the Predator had fired his cannon into the arm it had sent an electrical pulse through the wires that had fried almost every piece of machinery in the place, leaving Ed unable to give them anymore aces in the hole. Spike tired to focus on the plus side of the situation. [He's never gone up against anyone like me before. I might have a few surprises he's never seen.] The Predator landed on the ground and tried to face him down. It slowly brought its hands up, unhooking two tubes from its mask then removing it. Even the picture from the file hadn't prepared him for this. Two yellow eyes zeroed in on him like gunsights, while two pairs of mandibles moved independently of each other. "I didn't think it was possible for something to get that ugly."

"Ugly son of a bitch!!" The alien said in Jet's voice. Its mandibles spread wide and it let out a loud war cry as he began to stalk forward. Spike tried to keep himself calm.

[This is just like any other match against a larger opponent.] He told himself. [Except that now the opponent is a seven foot tall alien who wants to display your skull on his mantle.] Pushing that thought from his head he and the Predator circled each other waiting for the other to strike. Taking the initiative Spike struck with a left right punch combo the alien's face. The Predator seemed unaffected and responded with a right of his own that to Spike felt like it would take his head off. Recovering quickly Spike wiped the blood off his chin. [Ok, new plan. Let him attack first then counter with all I've got.] When the Predator threw a second punch Spike ducked and threw a kick to the face that would have broken the neck of any man alive. The Predator's head twisted to one side but slowly turned back. He gave a growl that seemed more annoyed then angry then responded with a punch that sent Spike flying onto his back. Spike got to his feet but the Predator was already approaching. [This is no good. He took my best kick and didn't flinch.] He ducked another punch and responded with an uppercut that should have put the alien on the ground but it had the same effect as the kick. He then received another punch that was just as hard as the first one. [My best chance is to wear him down. He's putting a lot of energy into those punches and I can make him waste it.] He started a process of hit and run. He would hit the Predator with a light blow then dodge when the counter punch came. He dodged all of them easily and his opponent seemed to be getting angry. The punches came faster and harder, so fast Spike almost wasn't able to dodge them.

"Fight me!!" The Predator exclaimed in Jet's voice. He threw another punch that barely missed Spike. "Wuss." He said in another voice.

[Ok he's mad. Now to get him on the defensive.] Spike began attacking with a flurry of blows that were, to him, hard but the Predator took them in stride, not even bothering to block. The Predator threw a punch and Spike saw his opportunity. If he could flip this guy he would be able to at least break his arm before he could recover. As he dodged Spike grabbed the alien's wrist, pivoted, and started to throw.

Spike had once told his only student Roco that strength was a small factor in fighting. It was the motion of your movements, not the power you put behind them. He was about to learn the hard way that all that Kung Fu shit only worked in Bruce Lee movies. When he attempted to throw the Predator his forward motion jerked to a halt. His opponent had set his feet and it was like he was trying to flip a mountain. In that moment of surprise the Predator swung his arm and flung the surprised human to the side like he was a rag doll. Spike let out a yell of surprise, flew far, and landed hard. Dazed from the fall he barely got up in time to see the Predator's fist headed right for his face. The blow staggered him but Spike managed to stay on his feet, and for his effort received another punch to the head, then another and another. With his head ringing and his vision blurred Spike was powerless to stop the hammer blows that the Predator rained down on him.

As Spike and the Predator fought Faye had begun to regain consciousness. The last thing she remembered was being lifted up into the air then everything went black. Groaning she forced herself to sit up. When she did she saw Jet lying at her feet, possibly dead. She gave him a light kick, making him grunt and stir a little. She gave him a harder kick and he woke up completely.

"OW! What was that for Faye!?" Jet asked when he got his bearings.

"It was to make sure you weren't dead. And I won't even ask how you got down here." Faye responded as she hauled herself to her feet. "I guess what we should be asking is why are we still alive? We should be skinned and headless by now."

"It was Spike, the big idiot." Jet grumbled. "He agreed to fight the guy hand to hand if he left us alone."

"That's crazy!!" Faye exclaimed. "The lunkhead can't beat that guy by himself!!"

"I know, I know!! Jet said, trying to think of a plan. "We've got to save his worthless skin somehow."

"We? Jet, you can't fight like this."

"Because I'm injured?" Jet asked. He answered before Faye could say anything. "You're not exactly one hundred yourself. You'll be lucky if you can see out of that eye tomorrow." Faye hissed when he mentioned it. Her eye had been throbbing ever since the alien had punched her but she was hoping it wouldn't be that bad.

"All right." She relented. "Just tell me how we're supposed to rescue him with only a tranquilizer gun?" Jet gave he a quizzical look then looked down at her shattered gun. "I saw where it landed after the Predator knocked it out of Spike's hands." Jet nodded.

"Good. I saw where he kicked his gun so at least we each have a weapon." He started downward but his leg forced him to walk with a heavy limp. "How are you fixed for darts?"

"Seven." She answered without checking her belt. She picked up Spikes tranq gun and checked it. "Eight, counting this one."

"And Spike fired one shot so I've got almost a full load here." Jet replied. "All that's left is to find them." In the distance they heard Spike yelling followed by a loud thud. Both glanced at each other and started in that direction as quickly as they could.

Spike again went flying through the air, this time courtesy of an uppercut to his chin. He had fought tough opponents before but this one took the cake. All his best punches and kicks the Predator had shrugged off like they were only light taps, and these were moves that would have killed almost anyone else if he used them like this. The punches he took, on the other hand, were so strong it felt like he was being hit by metal, not a fist. The fight was beginning to take a horrible toll on him. His chest felt like it was on fire, no telling how many ribs were broken, and his face felt like it was just one big bruise. This and he was dizzy to the point of nausea, a sure sign of at least one major concussion. Landing hard, for a second he could not move, but he saw something that might be able to save him. Snaking its way along the floor towards a pulley system was a thick electrical cable that was used to power the system. Several thousand volts would be flowing through it but the trick was to make it useful. Behind him he heard a metallic clink and saw his opportunity.

The ooman had proved to be a superb unarmed fighter. His blows were hard by ooman standards, and would have devastated his opponent had he been fighting a member of his own species. His agility and quick reflexes made him hard to catch, he had avoided many blows before he had attempted the ill-conceived throw. While his execution was good he lacked the strength to follow it through. After that it had degraded into a one sided beating. He was now punching Spike at will, several different times he heard bones break, and the last blow he had been very slow to rise from and was now in a kneeling position. The game was won and now all that remained was to end it. Extending his wristblades he stalked forward.

[Come on you sneaky bastard. Just come a little closer.] Spike mentally taunted. He hid the cable from view and listened as the heavy footsteps came closer. When they sounded close enough he turned and threw the cable. The Predator let out a surprised cry and instinctively cut at the object flung at him, the blades cut the cable into three different pieces. Two fell harmlessly to the floor, the other one started throwing out large sparks. Moving very quickly but precisely Spike grabbed the sparking end and thrust it at the Predator. The cable connected and the alien was engulfed in a storm of electricity. The first thing Spike noticed wrong was the Predator wasn't making any sound, what was worse was it looked like he didn't even feel the volts arcing through his body. With an air of almost indifference the alien pushed the still sparking cable aside. Spike looked up at the ceiling and sighed. There was one last thing he could do but he wouldn't get the chance. He looked at his executioner, completely calm. "It was a nice try though. Right?" The Predator didn't reply and slashed with his blades. Spike tried to lean to the side to avoid the attack and though he wasn't decapitated the blades ripped two deep gashes into his cheek, cutting down to the bone.

"Nice try." The Predator said in Spike's voice. He couldn't run and wouldn't be able to dodge again so he waited for the alien to strike but it suddenly flinched and grabbed its neck. It pulled out something and Spike saw it was a tranquilizer dart. Looking behind the alien he saw Faye reloading and Jet aiming the gun he had thrown away with his remaining hand. As the Predator turned to face them Spike's hand went to the pouch that held the rest of his darts and took them all out. With the Predator distracted Spike lunged forward and plunged them into the alien's back. The Predator stiffened up and let out a loud roar.

"SHOOT!!!" Spike shouted to Jet as he dove aside. Jet aimed and began firing. Again and again he fired, each shot hit the Predator in the chest. He had managed to put nine slugs in his chest before the Predator turned and ran, shoving Spike aside.

"Where the hell is he going?!" Faye yelled.

"Who cares, let's just get the bastard!!" Spike replied as he started off after him, even as he held his hand up to his face to stop the bleeding. Without a word Jet and Faye followed.

Wrong, wrong!! How could everything go so wrong!?! Everything had been going his way, even the trick Spike had used with the electrical cable had failed. He was about to get possibly his greatest ooman trophy, then the other two interfered!! He had left the two wounded and unconscious. They should have been helpless! How could they have recovered so fast!?! How did they get those weapons!?!? It didn't matter now. He had been injected with so much of the ooman chemical his balance was beginning to fail him. His vision came and went, blackness threatened to overwhelm him. They had set out to capture him, but he could not allow that, his honor would be tainted and that was a fate far worse then death. On the run he opened up the panel on his left wrist and armed his self-destruct mechanism. The drug impaired him so badly he barely got the code in to start the countdown, but once the countdown had begun he allowed himself to slow. There was no way they could stop it now. He stumbled once and fell, he tried to brace himself on the wall but darkness enveloped him before he even hit the ground.

As the three followed the path the Predator had went they could not hear him running. When they did find him they found him facedown on the floor, but any excitement was quickly dashed by a loud beeping coming from him.

"Please tell me that's not what I think it is." Faye groaned. Jet leaned down and flipped one of the Predator's wrists. On a readout weird symbols were flashing, changing and disappearing.

"Afraid so." Jet answered solemnly. "We got less then a minute before this place turns into ground zero."

"Well don't just stand there!!! Stop it!!!" Faye shouted.

"I don't know how the damn thing works! How the hell am I supposed to stop it!?!?!" Jet shot back.

"Like this." Spike replied calmly and took his gun back from Jet. He took aim and put two bullets through the Predator's forearm. This was able to destroy the self-destruct device but it also succeeded in waking the Predator up. It brought its head up with a yell but Faye had been waiting for an opportunity like this and took it. With a kick that would make most punters jealous she nailed the Predator in the side of the head that slammed it into the wall, creating a small crater with a spider web of huge cracks in the concrete and knocking the Predator out cold.

"That was for the bitch crack." She snarled at the unconscious form.

"Well we've done it." Spike said. "We did the impossible and captured one of the greatest hunters in the galaxy. Now comes the really hard question. What do we do with him?"

"What do you mean "what do we do with him"?" Faye asked. "We take him to the cops like planned."

"Before we do anything." Jet interrupted. "We need to make sure our prisoner is secure and we can transport him. Then we need to make sure we're all ok. After that we can talk."


	9. Final Decision

Chapter 9: Final Decision

In front of them lay one of the great scourges of mankind, a member of a species that had been hunting humans for longer then man had been recording time. Now it lay beaten and unconscious, with more then a dozen bullet holes in it and enough tranquilizer to kill several men. There was no real worry that it would die before they could collect their bounty but they weren't taking chances. While Faye and Spike kept it covered with the last remaining tranq gun and regular gun respectively Jet had used Spike's communicator to call Ed and had her bring down any first aid gear she could find. The plant turned out to be well prepared for any accidents that might occur and Ed was able to bring them everything they would need until they could get to a real doctor. Faye turned out to be the least injured, only a slight concussion and a black eye that was threatening to swell shut. An ice pack secured to her head was all that was needed. Jet's missing arm was secondary to the cuts on his chest and the burns on his face. His chest was bandaged and they removed all the shrapnel in his face that could be done safely. Spike was almost in as bad a shape as the Predator was. The cuts on his face were so bad they almost had to perform rudimentary stitching to stop the bleeding. Fortunately heavy bandaging and lots of pressure were enough to stop it. Without an x-ray there was no telling exactly how many ribs he had broken so they ended up taping all of them just to be safe. There was also the matter of the numerous concussions he had suffered but the only thing he could do about that was take a handful of aspirin and bandage the areas that were starting to swell. When they were finished Spike again was doing a very good mummy impersonation. Finally Faye and Jet started to work on their bounty, with Spike ready to put a bullet through its head if it so much as twitched.

"I don't see why we have to help this guy." Faye grumbled as they bandaged his gunshot wounds. "He just tried his best to kill all of us."

"Because we need him alive Faye." Jet reminded her. "Otherwise everyone will think this is a hoax."

"Well he doesn't seem to be in any real trouble yet." Faye said.

"He probably isn't." Jet replied. "According to MPU's files the Predator that Harrigan fought took at least three shotgun blasts to the chest and was able to get up after it."

"So why are we even bothering?!" Faye exclaimed. "If they can take shotgun blasts a few bullets wouldn't hurt them!"

"Because he has more then a few bullets in him." Spike spoke up. "They might not be enough to kill him by themselves but with that much damage he'll bleed to death."

"Speaking of blood." Jet broke in. "Would you get a load of this." He held up his hand, which was glowing faintly. "In all those Sci-fi flicks the aliens always bled some kind of a weird colored blood. Never thought in real life they would bleed neon." Spike shrugged and Faye shook her head in disgust.

"Must be so they can see were they're going at night." Faye said sarcastically. She finished with the last bandage and stepped back, wiping her hands on her clothes, which took on a glow of their own. She looked at the glow and shook her head again.

"Well that takes care of that problem." Jet said as he finished. "Now we have another one to deal with."

"Which is?" Spike asked.

"These things don't breathe the same air we do." Jet explained. "And we don't know how long they can last. Spike, you saw where he dropped his mask, take Ed and go get it. I'll keep this guy covered." Spike nodded and gave Jet the gun. Backtracking he found the mask right where the Predator had dropped it. Because of his ribs Spike was unable to bend over and pick it up so Ed picked it up and held it in front of her face, pretending to be wearing it.

"Edward is now big alien hunter." She said as she began to imitate the Predator's movements. A little to closely for Spike's liking. She stopped and looked at Spike curiously. "Spike person looks different, nothing but colors."

"Let me see it Ed." Taking the mask Spike looked through it and instead of seeing Ed normally he saw a collection of reds and yellow's.

"Does Edward look different to?" Ed asked.

"Yep." Spike confirmed. "This thing must be set to infrared by default." They took the mask back to Jet and Faye, still pointing their weapons at the prone form.

"Is it damaged?" Jet asked. Spike shook his head. "Good." He took Faye's tranq gun and tossed it to Spike.

"Hey!" Faye protested. "What was that about?"

"Spike can't bend down to put that thing and I've only got one hand. That leaves only one person."

"Oh no you don't!! Not me!! Get Ed to do it, she's not hurt at all."

"Maybe." Spike said. "But he could wake up at any time." Faye gave him a dangerous glare. "The more time you wait the more you're giving him to wake up." Spike pointed out. Faye sneered at him and grabbed the mask away from him. Slowly she put the mask back onto the alien, disgusted at being so close to it. Following instructions from Spike she reattached the tubes to the bottom of the mask, which sealed itself with a hiss.

"Ok, now what?" Faye asked.

"Now we take him to where we can hold him until the cops get here." Jet said, giving her back the tranq gun. "You two keep him covered." He grabbed one of the Predator's wrists and gave a pull, barely able to move him. "Jeez! Faye, give me a hand will you. Spike, if he even breaths funny blow his head off." Spike nodded and Faye reluctantly put the tranq gun in the holster but grabbed the other arm. Both started pulling and they slowly began to drag the alien.

"This guy had to weigh three hundred easy." Faye grunted as they continued to drag him.

"More like three fifty." Jet put in. The going was slow but they eventually dragged him to the area of detainment they had selected. Beside a metal support column lay the chain from the pawnshop. Faye and Jet managed to get him braced against the column while Spike and Ed wrapped the reinforced chain around him. After making sure the alien's arms were pinned and thoroughly secured they stepped back. "Guess the only left to do is call the cops and have them come pick this thing up." He tired to make the call but got nothing but static. "Must not be able to get an outside line from here." Spike tossed Jet his gun.

"I'll go make the call. You two are in the best shape to deal with something." Spike left the room and Ed followed.

"Edward will help." She called after him.

"You think they'll be alright?" Faye asked Jet.

"Better off then with that bastard over there." He answered, motioning towards the Predator. The Predator let out a loud groan and in response Faye and Jet pointed their weapons at him. He raised his head and looked around. He tried to move his arms and when he found he couldn't move he began to struggle harder in an attempt to escape but the chains held fast. When he found himself unable to escape he let out a roar that echoed through the entire plant. It then lowered its head and didn't look at Faye or Jet, who didn't lower their weapons but did relax slightly.

"Not so fun when you're on the receiving end is it?" Faye taunted. The Predator raised his head and looked right at her, giving a low growl.

"Teasing something that can rip you limb from limb is not a good idea Faye." Jet warned.

"Oh come on Jet. He can't do anything tied up, and it's not like he can understand us." The Predator let out a loud yell that caused both of them to jump back.

"I guess he can." Jet stated. The Predator took a deep breath and again began to fight against the chains that held him to the support column. "You're wasting you're time pal. That's high grade steel, even you can't break it." The Predator ignored him and continued to try and raise his arms

He remembered falling after he had activated the self-destruct sequence. Next he had felt a great pain in his arm, making him wake up from his chemical induced stupor. Then he had received two blows to the head. One of the oomans had kicked him, though he couldn't see what one, then his head had struck something hard, knocking him unconscious. He remembered very little after that. He thought he had heard the oomans speaking then felt like he was being dragged somewhere. He had fought to snap himself awake but the chemical on the darts overtook him and again he was greeted with darkness. Slowly the chemical began to wear off and he became aware of things. He was standing but he could not move. As he breathed he noticed that it was the air of home and not the lung burning air the oomans breathed. Sight began to come back to him. He looked up and saw two of the oomans, Jet and the female, standing in front of him with their weapons drawn. Looking around he could not recognize the surroundings and when he tried to move he found himself bound to something by a metal chain. He struggled desperately to get loose but found he could barely move, let alone escape. A roar of anger and shame sprang from his throat, making the oomans wince. He had disgraced his clan and his species by allowing himself to be captured. He lowered his head in shame, unwilling to face his captors. The female noticed and had the gall to insult him!! Not willing to let it go unchallenged he lifted his head and glared at the female, giving her a warning growl. Jet warned the female about antagonizing him further but the female chose to ignore his advice and insulted him second time. Her arrogance was because she thought he did not understand their language. Now infuriated he directed an angry shout at the female, Faye, as Jet had called her. Both oomans jumped back and he decided he had to escape any way he could, he would not be made a live trophy and suffer the shame . Taking a deep breath to prepare himself he put all his strength into a struggle against the chains that bound him. Jet made a remark that he could not break the chains but that made him fight all the harder.

"What's this guy trying to do, see how long he can strain himself without passing out?" Faye asked as the Predator continued his futile attempt to escape. When Jet had mentioned that he couldn't escape the alien seemed to double his efforts, but that still was getting him nowhere.

"Let him." Jet said. "The more he exhausts himself the easier it'll be for the cops to take him away." The Predator had gained no headway but he was still struggling with all his energy. Veins in his arms and neck began to bulge, dangerously, Jet thought. It would be ironic that the Predator had survived being shot with almost a clips worth of pistol ammunition and a tranquilizer overdose just to have one of his veins burst and die while he was trying to escape. He was considering whether to have Faye tranquilize him again when he heard a low but unmistakable groan of metal under high strain. He realized it was coming from the direction of the Predator when one of the chains broke with a loud snap. Jet pointed his weapon " Hold it right there or I'll shoot!!!" Jet shouted. The Predator growled and another chain broke. Jet fired warning shots that barely missed the alien's head. The alien called Jet's bluff and ignored the whizzing bullets. "Don't just stand there, shoot him!!" Jet shouted to Faye, who just stood watching the impossible happen right in front of her. The shout snapped her back to reality and she took shaky aim. In quick succession the remaining chains snapped and fell to the floor. With a roar of triumph the Predator leapt towards Faye just as she fired. Her aim spoiled the dart Faye fired sailed harmlessly over the Predator's shoulder. He slashed Faye's arm, making her drop the tranquilizer gun, and then stepped on it, breaking it into several pieces. Clutching her bleeding arm Faye looked from the wrecked gun up to the Predator's face and heard him start to laugh.

"Fun." It said in Faye's voice as he waved his wristblades. The laughter started again but stopped when a bullet tore into his right shoulder. He turned to face Jet who stood pointing the smoking gun.

"Get away from her or the next shot is going through your head!!" Jet warned, trying to sound as threatening as he could. Instead of answering the Predator turned and punched Faye in the stomach then turned back.

"Go ahead!!" The Predator answered in Jet's voice.

[Damn it!! He knows we want him alive. Now what?!] The Predator answered for him by charging forward. Caught off guard Jet fired but missed. The Predator wrenched the gun away from him and punched him to the ground with the other. Though dazed Jet was able to see the Predator shift the gun into a firing position and begin to raise it.

When the Predator punched her Faye felt all the air being forced out of her and fell to the ground doubled over. Not one to give up that easily Faye took a page from Spike and took out four of her remaining darts, being careful not to stick herself with one. Adrenaline giving her the ability to ignore the pain in her stomach and her bleeding arm she crawled forward as the Predator attacked Jet. It stopped raising the gun and Faye stabbed all four darts into one of Predator's legs. The Predator let out a loud screech of pain and anger as the chemical took almost immediate effect, making him drop the gun and falling forward, almost landing on Jet. Jet just stared at the fallen alien, a mixture of fear and surprise on his face. Standing up slowly and painfully and keeping pressure on her arm wound Faye walked over to Jet, who was so lost in his own thoughts he didn't even notice Faye's approach.

"Hey. You ok?" Faye asked. When Jet didn't answer she tapped him on the shoulder, which made him start and in turn caused Faye to jump. "Sorry, but for a second there I thought you went into shock."

"I think I did." Jet responded. Faye looked at him quizzically but he just shook his head. "Later." Was the only explanation he gave. "Right now let's get that arm looked at and tie him up so he can't escape this time." After bandaging Faye's arm they used the broken sections of chain to tie the Predator's arms behind his back so he wouldn't have the leverage to break them then wrapped more chains around his torso so he couldn't move his arms at all. Using what was left they tied his legs together so he couldn't try to walk out. They attached the last few chains to the support column, making him hang off the ground by his shoulders. Just as they finished the Predator groaned and began to move.

"How could he shake off that much tranquilizer? The last time he was out for almost ten minutes." Faye asked.

"Maybe he's developing and immunity to it." Jet answered. "If that's the case Spike better get back quick." The Predator let out another groan and shook his head, trying to throw off the effects of the drug. When he looked around and again found himself unable to move instead of a roar he let out what sounded like a loud sigh and dropped it's head.

"Looks like you've completely broken his spirit." A voice said from behind them. Both turned to see Ed and Spike.

"Let's hope so." Jet said. "I don't want to have to go through all that again." Spike nodded. Ed went over to get a closer look at their alien prisoner.

"Keep your distance Ed, he can still be dangerous." To the others he said. "We came back here as soon as we could. We heard that guy roaring on the way out but figured since we didn't hear any gunfire you had things under control."

"Just barely." Faye said. She then glanced behind them. "Aren't there supposed to be an army of cops behind you?"

"They won't be here for another fifteen minutes." Spike stated.

"What do you mean another fifteen minutes!?" Faye shouted. "Didn't you tell them who we caught!?!?"

"No." Spike responded flatly. "The last thing I want to is face a media circus when they pick this guy up."

"Good." Jet broke in. "That gives us enough time to talk about this." Spike nodded but Faye looked at him like he had just grown a second head.

"What do you mean talk?" She exclaimed. "We caught him and now we're going to turn him in! It's that simple!!" Jet shook his head.

"Spike see what you think about this." He began to tell him about the Predator's attempt to escape. "Now here is where it gets interesting. He dared me to kill him and when I didn't he takes the gun …."

"And he was about to shoot you with it when I saved your ass." Faye interrupted. "Just where is this going?"

"Where it's going is this. You were on the ground behind him. You saw him raise the gun but what you didn't see was that he didn't aim it at me. He had it up against his head and was going to shoot himself. Just before he did you knocked him out again." Faye's eye widened at the revelation and looked over to the Predator, who was still awake but had not moved.

"But, why would he do something like that?" Faye asked, not really believing it.

"His code." Spike answered.

"What code?" Faye asked.

"The code these aliens live by." Jet answered. "It's believed from the way they act that all of them have a code to follow, a set of rules. The closest thing that can be compared to their actions on Earth was the samurai code of honor. Death was preferable to defeat." Spike nodded in agreement.

"He had several chances to kill all of us but didn't. When I challenged him to unarmed combat he could have used any of his weapons but he chose to fight on my terms."

"Spike, be serious!!" Faye broke in. "These things hunt people for fun!! They don't care who they kill!!"

"These are big game hunters Faye, not a bunch of stupid rednecks that like to shoot things just to watch them bleed. What about Meifa?" Jet asked. Faye snorted.

"She wasn't armed."

"And what about Ed?" Spike asked.

"She wasn't armed either!!" Faye said, feeling like she was talking to a brick wall.

"But she was a threat." Spike pointed out. "She alerted us back on the ship and almost any person I know would have killed her to keep her quiet rather then going through all the trouble to tie her up."

"And what about the twenty people he did kill?" Faye asked coyly. Spike shrugged.

"You could make an argument that they were all scum and deserved what they got." Jet said.

"They could have just as easily been cops Jet." Faye remarked. Jet nodded.

"That's true. They have killed cops on Earth before." He agreed. "I'm not saying we should thank him for what he's done or forgive him. What I am saying is that turning him in may not be the best thing to do."

"WHAT!?!?" Faye shouted, her patience finally gone. "You're not suggesting we let him go are you?!" She didn't wait for an answer. "I say we turn him in, collect our bounty and try to put this behind us!! You can't expect this honor thing of his to be real can you!?! We let him go he's going to come after us again. Or worse, go home to were he came from and bring a bunch of his friends back."

"NO!" A deep and odd sounding voice said from behind them. Ed scrambled back to the group. The four of them looked at the Predator who was now staring at them. "No honor. Eternal shame. Let me die!!!"

His plan had failed. He had hoped to recover a small measure of his honor by dying in combat, but Jet had denied him that, determined to capture him alive for whatever purposes they had in mind. He had been resigned to the fact he would have to kill himself but before he could the female had pumped more of chemical into him and again rendered him unconscious. When he had awoken his arms and legs were tightly bound and he was suspended above the ground. Not much but it didn't matter, breaking the chains combined with the large doses of the chemical had sapped what little strength he had left. He hung his head in shame, knowing he had dishonored his ancestors as well as all living hunters by allowing himself to be captured like this. He heard Jet and Faye talking but did not listen to what they said. It was of no consequence now. Another voice, Spike's, joined the conversation and he heard something moving towards him. Lifting his head he saw it was the child from the ship. It looked at him with wide and curious eyes, with no hint of the fear from their first encounter. He hung his head again. He was humiliated to a degree that he couldn't even scare a child. He ignored the child and paid only remote attention to the conversation the three adults were having till one of them mentioned the word honor. His interest peaked he began to follow the conversation. The two males appeared to be arguing with the female about what to do with him. They were recounting his actions earlier, but the names were unfamiliar. Meifa? The insane female he had encountered in the city no doubt. Ed? It had to be the child that was watching him. As the conversation progressed the males seemed to be trying to explain the concept of honor to the female, who was not listening. Then she mentioned the word bounty. This was all he was to them!?! A means to gain material goods!?! She then dared to suggest that he could return home after the humiliation he had suffered!! Spike and Jet seemed to have some knowledge of honor but the female called Faye knew nothing of it.

"NO!" He had declared in the ooman's language. "No honor. Eternal shame. Let me die!!" He could understand English very well but speaking it was another matter. However his point seemed to get across. The child rushed back to the adults who were looking back at him in surprise. They had not been aware he could speak their language. Spike stepped forward and began to speak.

"You heard everything we were saying, didn't you?" The Predator nodded his head. They had been talking in low voices except for Faye's outbursts and thought they couldn't be heard. "So you want do die?"

"Yes." Came the Predator's reply.

"Why?" Spike asked, treating it like an interrogation.

"My honor, gone. Death only way reclaim it." The alien answered in forced but clear sounding English.

"You wouldn't try to contact your own people?" Jet asked. The Predator snarled and looked away.

"Looks to me like somebody can't stand to see their ego bruised." Faye remarked. The Predator's head snapped in her direction.

"Bitch!!" He spat in his own voice. "Teasing, not a good idea." He said in Jet's voice. Faye's face turned red and she started to shout something when Spike cut her off.

"Faye, do us a favor and stop acting like this guy is stupid. He's probably smarter then all of us."

"We're not the ones that are tied up." Faye sneered.

"Extremely lucky." The Predator answered in Jet's voice. Faye shot him an angry glare.

"He's right." Jet spoke up. "We were lucky to survive all of this and even luckier to be able to pull off this harebrained scheme." The Predator growled angrily.

"You beat and humiliate. Trade me for….goods ….." He struggled to think of the word. "You'd allow others, humiliate me worse. Not warriors! Scavengers! No honor! LET ME DIE!!!!" Spike glanced over to Jet then back at the Predator.

"If we do release you, you're going to have to do this our way. You do what we tell you to or we turn you in. Agreed?"

"Yes." The Predator answered after some consideration. Jet sighed and shook his head. Faye gasped, walked over to Spike and slapped the bandaged part of his face. Yelling in pain he grabbed the bandage. "Damn it Faye! Just what the hell was that for?!"

"It's to try and knock some sense into you!! Just listen to yourself!!! You're willing to trust something from another planet just based on guess from dead scientists?!?!?!?"

"No, because he was willing to trust me." Spike said evenly. Faye gave him a puzzled look. "When I challenged him I could have easily picked up my gun and killed him after he dropped Jet. He knew that but he spared you and Jet anyway. He is a killer but he does keep his word." Faye looked at him in astonishment.

"He's right." Jet agreed. "If the scientists have even the smallest amount of their code right he has nothing to go back to now. Death is preferable to a lifetime of shame." The Predator grunted and nodded in agreement.

"And letting him do this is preferable to letting the Red Dragons get a hold of him. Imagine what they would do with this technology if they got their hands on it." Spike explained. The Predator let out a confused grunt and tilted his head to one side. "Red Dragons is the name of a powerful crime organization. When you killed a group of them in that alley they felt their power was threatened and sent the group at the warehouse to kill you. After you killed them they offered a reward to anyone who could catch or kill you." The Predator gave an angry growl. "Exactly how I feel about them, I should probably thank you for all the trouble you gave them." He then turned back to Faye. "So are you going to help or not?" Faye looked at Spike then Jet and back again. When she saw their minds were made up she exhaled loudly.

"I can't believe I'm giving up that ten billion." She said, sounding like she was on the verge of crying. They took down and unchained the Predator, who after making sure he could stand shot Faye an angry glance but did nothing else.

"You'll have to follow us back to the Bebop, after that we can decide what to do." The Predator nodded again and activated his cloak. "Now all that's left to do is deal with the cops once they get here."

"That's easy, just tell them that our bounty escaped." Jet suggested. "They won't think twice about it and we can get back to the Bebop with no problems." The police seemed skeptical but when they saw how the three of them looked they decided to take their word for it. After the cops left Spike searched out the destroyed plasma gun and threw it into one of the vats of molten metal to make sure no one could get anything from it. The police offered to give them a lift back to the Bebop and it was gladly taken. As the hover transport lifted off it shuddered slightly and the four of them exchanged nervous glances.

"Damn engines." The pilot cursed. "Can never get them to work right." They all breathed a sigh of relief but didn't relax until they were back on the Bebop and the hover transport vanished from sight.

"So where is he?" Faye asked looking around the deck.

"Here." A voice answered as a flash of energy signaled the deactivation of the Predator's cloak. "Plan?" He immediately inquired.

If those back home heard about this they would never believe it, the Predator was sure of that. Trusting oomans was risky, but they seemed sincere in their offer. Jet and Spike proved to be rational beings, unlike the female who was driven by simple greed. Jet and Spike understood honor, they were willing to reject the reward the criminals had set on him. Petty criminals driven by fear of an unknown power, had set a reward on him so that others would die rather than face the threat themselves. Cowards of the highest degree. And enemy's of these oomans, one reason they allowed him to regain his honor. Quite a change, he had originally believed that they would make him suffer but they turned out to respect their enemy, and he had to admit a grudging respect for them. They had beaten him in combat but did not give in to the materialist impulses and had fought like true warriors. Now with his self-destruct device destroyed they allowed him an honorable death. One of their choosing but unlike before he suspected no trap. When he inquired what was to be done Jet pointed to the horizon.

"There's a large desert outside the city. With it's sandstorms nobody will ever be able to find any evidence you were ever here." An exile of sorts until death. He nodded his approval and Jet turned and went inside the hangar. The other oomans followed and he entered last. He saw their flying craft, destroyed. Walking up to the Jet's craft he began searching the exterior. "Hey!! Get away from there!! You've done enough damage to it already!!!" He paid Jet no mind and continued to look until he found what he was looking for. Yanking the homing device out of the metal he showed it to Jet.

"Tracker." He said in the ooman's language. Jet seemed to scrutinize it for a second then shrugged.

"Guess that explains that." He said. "You stay in here until we get over the desert. Got that?" The Predator nodded in acknowledgment. "Good." Jet stated and left, followed by the others.

"I still don't think this is a good idea." Faye complained as they entered the bridge.

"All this guy wants to do is die with some dignity." Spike responded. "If he didn't he would have done something by now." Faye looked skeptical but kept her mouth shut. The ride out was short and they made a rough landing in the middle of the desert just as the sun was beginning to rise. They all returned to the hangar and saw no sign of the Predator. The found him out on the deck surveying the new surroundings. "This good enough?" Spike asked him. The Predator nodded.

"How long will you last out there?" Jet asked.

"Not long." The Predator answered in his real voice. He approached Jet, grabbed his good shoulder and gave it a hard shake. "Respect." He explained. He removed a small object from his belt and gave it to Jet. It was a dagger. Looking closely at the handle he saw an odd insignia composed of two lightning bolts side by side and the year 1943 stamped into the blade. He approached Faye next. He gave a snort of contempt but shook her shoulder also. "Good fight." He told her.

"Yeah it was real fun." Faye replied sarcastically. The Predator gave another snort but said nothing else. He was about to take a step when Ed appeared in front of him out of nowhere.

"Is it Edward's turn now?" She asked eagerly. The Predator looked at her curiously but shook her shoulder anyway, causing her to fall over and start laughing. The Predator shook his head at Ed's antics and approached Spike.

"Worthy hunter." He told Spike as he shook his shoulder. Spike stepped back and responded with a bow that combatants gave at the end of a match, which the Predator returned. The Predator then disconnected the air hoses of his mask and took it off, offering it to Spike. "Trophy." Spike nodded and took it. The Predator then turned, jumped off the ship and started walking, never looking back.

"So we go through all that," Faye said as she watched the alien walk off. "and have nothing to show for it."

"We have this." Spike said, holding up the mask.

"Big deal." Faye snorted. "That's not going to get us any food or fuel."

"Maybe not." Jet spoke up. "But this dagger will. It's over a hundred years old and in prime condition so it has to be worth something."

"That's out last hope." Faye said as they entered the ship.

He had gone less then a mile when he heard the Bebop's engines rumble to life. Turning around he saw the ship lift off and disappear over the horizon. He again started walking, waiting for the desert climate to take its toll. After walking for several hours and taking no food or water he began to feel the effects of dehydration and the burning air of the unfamiliar atmosphere. His steps became stumbles and he felt life beginning to slip away. The last thing he saw were two oomans, one very old the other very young. The young one pointed at him and started to say something but he never heard what is was as he fell forward. As blackness embraced him he prepared himself for what awaited beyond.

The child ran up to the Predator's body and cautiously approached it.

"Is it dead Laughing Bull?" The child asked. Laughing Bull nodded.

"Yes. Another warrior has passed from this life. May the Great Spirit protect and guide his soul."

"But he is not human. Why would the Great Spirit protect him?"

"If the warrior is worthy the Great Spirit will welcome him, no matter what he may be." A gust of wind blew past them. "A storm is coming. We must prepare for it." He began to leave but the boy continued to stare at the strange body. "Leave him in peace, as you found him." The child hurried to follow him. The storm that hit was strong, within an hour the Predator's body was buried under several feet of sand. Above the planet, unseen by anyone, a star grew in size and intensity. It held its brightness briefly then faded from sight.

Epilogue:

On the Bebop

All the crew had recovered from the ordeal. Their wounds had been healed, Jet's arm had been replaced and the Swordfish, Hammerhead and Red Tail had been repaired.

"Who knew that an old dagger like that would be worth fifty million?" Spike remarked as he was putting the finishing touches on the Swordfish.

"Lucky for us that guy was a fanatic about that kind of stuff." Replied Jet, who was doing similar work on the Hammerhead. "Of course the bad news is after paying for the repairs on the ships, the replacement of my arm and the doctors for patching us up we only have about three hundred thousand left."

"At least we were able to stock up on food and top off the fuel tanks." Spike noted. "And I think Faye took it rather well." Jet chuckled at the remark. When they had told her how little money they had left she had taken the mask the Predator had given Spike and tried to put a bullet between its eyes. The bullet ricocheted back and nearly hit her. After that reminder she was resolved to being thankful to having any money at all as well as their lives, even though she still moped about it now and then. As for the mask, it had been mounted above the door inside the bridge, to remind them of their victory and just how small they really were.

Red Dragon Headquarters

An armored truck, surrounded by several police cruisers stopped in front of the Red Dragon's headquarters. S.W.A.T members surrounded the truck and opened the back. Out of it came an officer wearing a high ranking uniform and a several other S.W.A.T officers carrying a large trunk like case. Out of the building came a man with white hair and a face devoid of emotion. The ranking officer approached and saluted.

"Sir Vicious. We have retrieved the object as commanded."

"Let me see it." Vicious ordered. The officer nodded and gestured to the S.W.A.T officers holding the case, who opened it. Inside was a long metal spear unlike anything either man had seen before. "You're certain this is the only thing you could find?" The officer nodded. "Very well. Have your men bring it inside. The elders have expressed great interest in examining this." After the case was sealed and taken inside Vicious spoke to the officer in a low tone. "Are there any who might know where that weapon truly came from?"

"Only some bounty hunters, and I told them that all the alien stuff was just some bullshit story they made up. They'll never suspect a thing."

"Very well. The elders thank you commissioner and you shall be rewarded for your services." The police commissioner gave another salute but Vicious was already walking back into the building.

NOT THE END


End file.
